Việt Nam’s National Mourning: Reserved for Elites, Denied to Citizens

On the evening of Sept. 16, 2026, candles were lit at Lý Thái Tổ Park in Hồ Chí Minh City to remember those who died of COVID-19. Organized by Vietnam Television’s southern regional center and Thanh Niên newspaper, the event brought together mourners, city leaders, and representatives of central agencies. 

The ceremony showed that the victims have not been forgotten. But it also raises a question that remembrance alone cannot answer: Why has Việt Nam, a country that declares national mourning for its leaders and even foreign dignitaries, never accorded that recognition to ordinary citizens?

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Since 1945, Việt Nam’s government has declared national mourning 29 times—23 for senior Vietnamese leaders and six for leaders of fellow socialist countries like North Korea, Laos, and Cuba—but never once for ordinary citizens, despite the country’s devastating wars, severe natural disasters, and deadly epidemics. [1] [2] [3]

This reality became glaringly obvious during the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the most catastrophic disasters in centuries. While countries like Spain, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, and Mexico observed multiple days of national mourning for their dead, in Việt Nam—where the pandemic claimed more than 22,500 lives—national mourning remained only a proposal. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

When COVID-19 swept through Việt Nam in 2021, authorities struggled to contain the outbreak while searching for a way to commemorate over 20,000 lost lives that would satisfy both the party and the public.

On Nov. 8, 2021, National Assembly member Nguyễn Anh Trí proposed a day of national mourning, gaining rapid media traction and public support. [9] Similarly, Nguyễn Hữu Thông, deputy head of Bình Thuận province’s National Assembly delegation, proposed designating April 27 as an annual day of remembrance. [10] 

In the end, neither proposal was fully adopted.

Instead, on Nov. 11, 2021, National Assembly Chairman Vương Đình Huệ announced that the party and state agreed to hold a “memorial ceremony” after hearing lawmakers’ views. [11] Nearly two weeks later, authorities set Nov. 19 for a ceremony led by the Vietnam Fatherland Front to honor “compatriots who died and officials and service members who sacrificed their lives.” [12] 

However, the national ceremony was limited to Hà Nội and Hồ Chí Minh City, leaving other localities to determine their own forms of remembrance. The event itself mirrored a typical government media event, complete with a dress rehearsal, speeches, singers, and artistic performances, and it was repeated on September 16, 2026, in Hồ Chí Minh City at Lý Thái Tổ Park. [13] [14]

In the event of 2021, notably absent were the country’s four top leaders, known as the “four pillars,” who had rarely appeared publicly during the preceding crisis. The highest-ranking central officials present included Võ Văn Thưởng of the party secretariat, National Assembly Vice Chairman Trần Thanh Mẫn, and Đỗ Văn Chiến, chairman of the Việt Nam Fatherland Front Central Committee at that time.

Then-Communist Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng only sent a floral arrangement and did not even appear in a prerecorded video, a format he regularly utilized for his Lunar New Year greetings on VTV. [15]

Without an official declaration of national mourning, citizens mourned independently, carrying their grief into churches and temples or releasing floating lanterns onto the water. By 2022, authorities seemed to move past the tragedy, raising no further proposals for commemoration.

These memories only resurfaced in 2026 when authorities allocated a vacant site on Lý Thái Tổ Street in Hồ Chí Minh City for a memorial park. Sun Group, the company building the site, conceived the park’s centerpiece, a water droplet symbolizing the tear honoring the dead. [16] [17]

It is particularly tempting to mistakenly attribute this lack of national mourning to political systems, assuming that only democracies honor civilian tragedies. Yet China, Việt Nam’s neighbor and ideological ally, held national mourning for COVID-19 victims on April 4, 2020, when its reported death toll was just over 3,300. [18] 

The Chinese government suspended public entertainment and flew flags at half-staff nationwide and at embassies abroad. At 10 a.m., air raid sirens, trains, and ships sounded during a three-minute silence, with President Xi Jinping taking part and offering condolences. [19]

In Việt Nam, Decree No. 105/2012/NĐ-CP dictates that state funerals are strictly reserved for serving or former leaders in the “four pillars” positions or individuals deemed by the Politburo to have made significant contributions. [20] 

Although the Politburo’s 2011 Notice 19-TB/TW previously agreed to “hold state funerals in cases of exceptionally serious natural disasters or catastrophes causing major losses of life and property,” no national mourning has ever been enacted under this provision. [21]

While terminology and systems vary, governments worldwide frequently organize nationwide observances to honor civilian deaths. 

For instance, following the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire that killed 72 people, the British government ordered flags flown at half-staff. [22] 

The Spanish government declared three days of national mourning and lowered flags on public buildings, diplomatic missions, and naval vessels after heavy rain on Oct. 30, 2024, left at least 70 people dead in eastern and southern Spain. [23] 

This practice continued when Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez declared three days of national mourning after a Jan. 18, 2026, train crash in Adamuz, Córdoba, Spain, killed 46 people and injured nearly 300. [24] 

Additionally, five days after a Jan. 1, 2026, fire in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, killed 40 people, the Swiss Federal Council designated Jan. 9 as a national day of mourning. [25]

These Western countries also declare national mourning for their leaders with considerable ceremony. The United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth realms observed 10 days of mourning after Queen Elizabeth II died in 2022, while Spain observed seven days following the death of King Juan Carlos I’s mother in 2000. [26] [27]

The distinction is that many countries use the same national mourning framework to honor both heads of state and ordinary citizens. It is not an exclusive privilege reserved for the leadership, as it remains in Việt Nam.

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No one wishes for death or the mourning that follows, yet these examples reveal a clear mindset among Việt Nam’s leaders: national mourning is a ritual reserved for politicians based on their office. While Việt Nam officially mourns foreign leaders, it does not do the same for its own citizens.

When a member of the “four pillars” dies, a state funeral is guaranteed. The entire country must pause, daily entertainment ceases, and citizens are required to show remembrance—often for a leader they barely knew. Yet, tens of thousands of citizens dying in a pandemic warrant only a localized, lesser observance.

This disparity contradicts both the state’s “government of the people” slogan and the Politburo’s own Notice 19-TB/TW. [28] The persistent refusal to declare national mourning for the public points to a system where the people are not truly regarded as the rightful owners of their country, their deaths unlikely to be recognized as a national loss.

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Đức Chính wrote this op-ed article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on August 11, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine owns the copyright for this English translation. The opinions expressed in op-ed articles published by The Vietnamese Magazine do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the magazine’s editorial board.