Ancient sacred turtle dies in Vietnam, leading to widespread concerns about…politics

While the United States forecasts the political season with poll numbers and pundits, a different sort of omen has emerged in tumultuous Vietnam: the death of the sacred turtle.

The turtle had lived in Hanoi's central lake for decades at least, with some saying he'd been there for centuries. He represented the tangible embodiment of Cu Rua, "Great-Grandfather Turtle," who loaned out a magical sword to a mythological hero.

But the turtle inconveniently died in a season of debate about Vietnam's standing with China — and on the same day the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry slammed China for sending an oil rig into disputed waters, The New York Times reports. Additionally, the Communist Party's congress has just opened; the timing seems unlucky, and an ominous feeling has fallen for those who'd seen the turtle as a symbol of Vietnam's endurance and independence.

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"People say the turtle's death is bad luck, and a way for the gods to show that something’s about to happen," Nguyen Thien Hung, the caretaker of the nearby Vu Thach Buddhist temple, told the Times. "If I were to discuss the political implications of this, the government would think I was trying to destabilize it. But everyone thinks this is bad luck for the government."