National Day (Vietnam)

National Day Ngày Quốc Khánh
Hồ Chí Minh reading the Declaration of Independence in Ba Đình Square
Official name	Ngày Quốc khánh Việt Nam 2-9
Observed by	Vietnam
Type	National
Significance	Declaring Vietnam Independence from French Colonization
Date	2 September
Next time	2 September 2017 (2017-09-02)
Frequency	annual

National Day (Vietnamese: Ngày Quốc Khánh) is a national holiday in Vietnam observed on September 2, commemorating the Vietnam Declaration of Independence from France on September 2, 1945. It is the country's National Day.

The Japanese occupied Vietnam during World War II but allowed the French to remain and exert some influence. At the war's end in August 1945, a power vacuum was created in Vietnam. Capitalizing on this, the Việt Minh launched the "August Revolution" across the country to seize government offices. Emperor Bảo Đại abdicated on August 25, 1945, ending the Nguyễn Dynasty. On September 2, 1945, at Ba Đình Square, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, leader of the Viet Minh, declared Vietnam's independence under the new name of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN) in a speech that invoked the United States Declaration of Independence and the French Revolution's Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

Leading up to, and then following, the end of the Vietnam War, the Communist Party of Vietnam (thereafter the government of a united Vietnam) established a unified list of national holidays. These new holidays were to include the International Labour Day on 1 May, the anniversary of the August Revolution 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 and the mid-autumn moon, Tết Trung Thu, continued to be observed as traditionally.