National Day ( vi, Ngày Quốc Khánh) is a national holiday in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...

observed on 2 September, commemorating President

Hồ Chí Minh (: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as ('Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as Pri ...

reading the

Declarations of independence of Vietnam Current Vietnamese historians considers that Vietnam has had a total of three declarations of independence: #The poem '' Nam quốc sơn hà'' (''Mountains and rivers of Southern country'') was written in 1077 by Lý Thường Kiệt and recited n ...

Ba Đình Square Ba Đình Square ( vi, Quảng trường Ba Đình) is the name of a square in Hanoi where president Ho Chi Minh read the Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on September 2, 1945. It is named after the Ba Đình Upri ...

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi i ...

on 2 September 1945. It is the country's National Day.

History

During World War II, the Japanese occupied Vietnam and allowed the French to remain and exert some influence. At the war's end in August 1945, a

power vacuum In political science and political history, the term power vacuum, also known as a power void, is an analogy between a physical vacuum to the political condition "when someone in a place of power, has lost control of something and no one has r ...

was created in Vietnam. Capitalizing on this, the

Việt Minh The Việt Minh (; abbreviated from , chữ Nôm and Hán tự: ; french: Ligue pour l'indépendance du Viêt Nam, ) was a national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1941. Also known as the Việt Minh Fron ...

launched the "

August Revolution The August Revolution ( vi, Cách-mạng tháng Tám), also known as the August General Uprising (), was a revolution launched by the Việt Minh (League for the Independence of Vietnam) against the Empire of Vietnam and the Empire of Japan in ...

" across the country to seize government offices. Emperor

Bảo Đại Bảo Đại (, vi-hantu, , lit. "keeper of greatness", 22 October 191331 July 1997), born Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy (), was the 13th and final emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, the last ruling dynasty of Vietnam. From 1926 to 1945, he was em ...

abdicated on 25 August 1945, ending the

Nguyễn dynasty The Nguyễn dynasty (chữ Nôm: 茹阮, vi, Nhà Nguyễn; chữ Hán: 阮朝, vi, Nguyễn triều) was the last Vietnamese dynasty, which ruled the unified Vietnamese state largely independently from 1802 to 1883. During its existence, ...

. On 2 September 1945, at

Ho Chi Minh (: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as (' Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as P ...

, leader of the

Viet Minh The Việt Minh (; abbreviated from , chữ Nôm and Hán tự: ; french: Ligue pour l'indépendance du Viêt Nam, ) was a national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1941. Also known as the Việt Minh Fro ...

, declared Vietnam's independence under the new name of the

Democratic Republic of Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...

(DRVN) in a speech that invoked the

United States Declaration of Independence The United States Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America, is the pronouncement and founding document adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at Pennsylvania State House ( ...

and the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (french: Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen de 1789, links=no), set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human civil rights document from the French Revolu ...

Establishment

Leading up to, and then following, the end of the Vietnam War, the

Communist Party of Vietnam The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), also known as the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP), is the founding and sole legal party of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Founded in 1930 by Hồ Chí Minh, the CPV became the ruling party of No ...

(thereafter the government of a united Vietnam) established a unified list of national holidays. These new holidays were to include the

International Labour Day International Workers' Day, also known as Labour Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day, is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement and occurs every year on 1 May ...

on 1 May, the anniversary of the

on 19 August, Viet Nam's National Day on 2 September, and Ho Chi Minh's birthday on 19 May. The lunar new year,

Tết Nguyên Đán Tết (), short for Tết Nguyên Đán (Chữ Hán: 節元旦), Spring Festival, Lunar New Year, or Vietnamese Lunar New Year is one of the most important celebrations in Vietnamese culture. The colloquial term "Tết" is a shortened form of , ...

and the mid-autumn moon,

Tết Trung Thu Tết Trung Thu (Chữ Hán: 節中秋) is a traditional Vietnamese festival held from the night of the 14th of the 8th lunar month to the end of the 15th of the 8th lunar month (Rằm tháng Tám). Despite its Chinese origin, recently this fest ...

, continued to be observed as traditionally. The list of full

public holidays in Vietnam Public holidays Public holidays in Vietnam are days when workers get the day off work. Prior to 2007, Vietnamese workers observed 8 days of public holiday a year, among the lowest in the region. On 28 March 2007 the government added the traditio ...

has been revised since 2007 but National Day, 2 September, remains a full public and bank holiday. By 2019, the holiday was lengthened by one day by adding one day immediately before or after 2 September.

References

External links

Vietnamese 70th anniversary National Day Parade
{{Public holidays in Vietnam Public holidays in Vietnam September observances National days