This traditional practice honors ancestral figures who contributed to building and defending the nation - from the Hùng Kings, An Dương Vương, the Trưng Sisters, Ngô Quyền, Lý Thường Kiệt, Trần Hưng Đạo, Lê Lợi, Quang Trung, Hàm Nghi, Phan Đình Phùng, Nguyễn Trung Trực, and Hoàng Hoa Thám, to modern revolutionary pioneers symbolized by President Hồ Chí Minh. To preserve the country’s independence, the nation endured heroic resistance wars throughout the 20th century, during which countless cadres, soldiers, and citizens courageously sacrificed for the freedom, unity, and territorial integrity of the Fatherland.

Against this historical backdrop, the 500-Day-and-Night Campaign to accelerate the search, collection, and identification of martyrs’ remains (running from March 15, 2026 to July 27, 2027) represents a comprehensive nationwide movement of gratitude. It acts as an order from the heart, embodying the Vietnamese cultural tradition of remembering source waters when drinking.

More than three months after its launch, the campaign has yielded meaningful results, accompanied by deeply emotional stories as new remains are recovered. In the Lê Thị Riêng Park area, multiple martyrs’ remains were recently discovered. Notably, one set of remains was found with personal effects and documents belonging to Huỳnh Văn Quên, originally from Long An and now part of Tây Ninh province.

This discovery spread rapidly, leading a family in Tây Ninh with matching details to submit DNA samples for verification as potential relatives of Huỳnh Văn Quên.

The emotional resonance of this discovery stems from a promise made just before the 1968 Tet Offensive by Huỳnh Văn Quên, who told a young woman named Nguyễn Thị Lệ that he would return to introduce himself to her parents and ask for her hand in marriage after winning the battle. Waiting nearly 60 years on that single vow, Nguyễn Thị Lệ remained unmarried from her early twenties into her late seventies before receiving news of her loved one. Although wartime meant many women lost husbands, gaining the identity of a wife and mother was often denied to her. Recognizing this sacrifice, the family of Huỳnh Văn Quên embraced her as a devoted daughter-in-law, and on July 18, 2026, the Department of Home Affairs of Tây Ninh province officially recognized Nguyễn Thị Lệ as the wife of martyr Huỳnh Văn Quên, issuing her a formal Certificate of Martyr’s Relative. Her story remains a testament to the severity of war and the enduring losses borne by both the fallen and the living.

Gratitude to national contributors forms a fundamental moral pillar of Vietnamese tradition. In his historic Testament, President Hồ Chí Minh emphasized that human welfare must be prioritized first, instructing the Party, Government, and citizens to provide stable housing, vocational training, and self-reliance opportunities for wounded cadres, soldiers, and volunteers. He also requested that every locality build monuments and floral gardens honoring fallen martyrs to educate future generations on patriotism, while ensuring that local authorities support struggling parents, spouses, and children of martyrs to prevent poverty and hunger.

Following the onset of the National Resistance Day on December 19, 1946, one of the earliest fallen martyrs was the son of doctor Vũ Đình Tụng. Upon receiving the report, President Hồ Chí Minh personally wrote a letter of condolence to the doctor, expressing profound sympathy and stating that although he had no personal family, all Vietnamese youth were his children. He noted that while their physical presence was lost, their spirit would forever live on with the nation.

In June 1947, President Hồ Chí Minh directed the selection of a national day to honor wounded soldiers and demonstrate public gratitude. In early July 1947, a conference held in Đại Từ district, Thái Nguyên province, officially designated July 27 as National Wounded Soldiers Day. On this occasion, President Hồ Chí Minh launched a movement to support wounded soldiers, setting an example by donating his personal salary, a silk garment, and meals from the Presidential Office.

Inheriting this tradition and adhering to President Hồ Chí Minh’s teachings, the Party, State, and People have continually refined policies for wounded soldiers and martyrs’ families. The 500-Day-and-Night Campaign marks an unprecedented effort in scope and scale, exhuming tens of thousands of unidentified graves across cemeteries nationwide to extract DNA samples for testing.

The campaign sets major targets, including searching for and gathering approximately 7,000 martyrs’ remains, completing sample collection for around 230,000 unidentified graves, and conducting DNA testing on approximately 18,000 samples. The Government tasked the Ministry of Public Security with constructing, managing, and operating a gene bank of unidentified martyrs’ relatives. This involves reviewing records, creating databases, collecting and analyzing DNA samples from relatives, integrating data into the National Database, and cross-matching DNA profiles between remains and living relatives while managing sensitive or inaccurate information during execution.

Data from the Social Policy Department under the General Political Department of the Vietnam People’s Army shows that between the campaign’s launch and July 5, functional forces searched for and gathered 1,306 martyrs’ remains, comprising 282 domestically, 174 in Laos, and 850 in Cambodia, alongside three mass graves in Tuyên Quang. Nationwide, sampling has been conducted on 35,925 graves, with 25,331 meeting sampling criteria. Furthermore, DNA samples have been collected from 93,464 relatives of martyrs, with 53,036 samples successfully processed and synchronized into the national database.

Set to conclude on July 27, 2027, the campaign involves a substantial remaining workload. Driven by gratitude for heroic martyrs, functional forces continue working to fulfill and exceed target expectations. Beyond its scheduled conclusion, these search and identification efforts will persist through various ongoing forms to bring peace of mind to martyrs’ families and honor the nation’s forebears.