WORSHIP ANCESTOR IN VIET NAM ( THỜ CÚNG TỔ TIÊN)

The custom of worshiping ancestors is a beautiful, rich, and colorful and joyful tradition in
Vietnamese culture. For years, the Vietnamese have worshiped their ancestors and it is very
much enjoyed. Every year on the day when a family member died, the surviving members gather
together and commemorate the deceased person which is called “ngày giỗ”. This traditional
value, in the author’s opinion, should be preserved and promoted for its positive meaning to all
family generations past, present and future.

The Custom of Ancestor Worship by Vietnamese Families

To begin with, the majority of Vietnamese families have ancestor altars to honor and remember
their ancestors. The size of the altars is varied in size from small to large depending on the
situation of each family. The altar has to be located in a high, clean, respectful place in the house
where incense and flowers are displayed on the anniversary of the family member’s death, on the
Vietnamese New Year as well as other occasions. Generally, every altar should have three small
pots of incense, two flower vases, photos of the deceased, two beautiful plates to present favorite
offerings to the deceased, one bottle of wine, and a set of tea pot and cups. The altar is always
kept clean and neat. Many families very often burn incense because they believe it will bring
peace to their descendants.

On the first day of every month and the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, the descendants
worship their ancestors and the deceased with an offering of a few fresh flowers, bowls of water,
and a bunch of bananas. These offerings may vary from region to region.

During the year there are numerous major holidays. Six such examples are: Grave Visiting Day
(Lễ Tảo Mộ) in lunar March – this Thanh minh festival in lunar March is made up of grave-
visiting making the ritual an outdoor form of a festive atmosphere; the Killing Gem Festival, Tết
Đoan Ngọ, which occurs on the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar calendar – this is the source
for the alternative name of Double Fifth; the Sins Forgiving (Rằm Tháng Bảy xá tội vong nhân
occurring in the middle of July of the Lunar Year – its meaning is the same as that of Halloween
in the USA); the Accident Day (Tết Trùng Cửu – on September 9 of the Lunar Year; the Kitchen
Ghosts (Tết Táo quân – on December 23 of the Lunar Year; and on the first day of the new
Lunar Year, Tết Nguyên Đán, which may be at the end of January or the beginning of February
of the Solar Year. These occasions are private ceremonies usually only attended by family
members, and also occasionally by close friends. Often times, they spend the entire day cooking
and preparing for an elaborate banquet in honor of the deceased individual; therefore, the
ceremony serves as a time for families to reunite and share happiness and sorrows together.
Secondly and of lesser importance for many Vietnamese are birthday celebrations although for
some young people it is now customary to follow the Western style of birthday celebrations. In
general, the Vietnamese still consider the anniversary of someone’s death in the family as being
much more meaningful.

Normally, after a funeral ceremony for a loved one, the family makes it a ritual to observe the
event for three days, then at 49 days and finally at one year; the first anniversary is the most
formal one. After that, every year on the day the loved one died, the family organizes a day of
celebration and invites relatives to worship and enjoy the anniversary.

Even the poor families offer their ancestors and the deceased a day of observation by serving a
meal with some meat, fish or vegetables and they invite several relatives to attend the ceremony.
A relative’s absence from an anniversary is cause for sadness by the person preparing the
ceremony and those who cannot attend it also feel guilty because it is considered a duty and
responsibility to attend the important event of the day.

The ritual of worshiping their ancestors and the deceased is rooted from the following beliefs: for
many Vietnamese, death is not the end; that is, the physical aspect of life vanishes but the soul is
immortal which is called yin and yang harmony. Therefore, many Vietnamese believe that the
presence of their ancestors in the daily life of the family is still here on earth. They also believe
that the ancestors continue blessing them. For the great things that are happening in the family
the head of the family utterly bows before the family ancestors first to present the issue to them
and next to ask the ancestors for their blessings.

What are the Meanings of Ancestor Worship?

First, ancestor worship is to express gratitude to the ancestors, the deceased parents and
grandparents. The children express their devotion and gratitude to the past generations who have
nurtured and brought them up. The filial children are expected to show gratitude to their parents
for fostering them. To show filial piety to their parents they should also be grateful to their
ancestors and deceased grandparents. This is their root that generates generations over time.
Everyone is proud of their roots, which is a prerequisite for their pride, identity and success in
life. Vietnam folk poems say something like this: “A tree has roots and branches that are hatched
from the root and water also runs from its original sources to the rivers and seas”. Therefore, the
ancestors taught us that we have to appreciate and respect our roots from our ancestors.
Descendants should remember their construction and devotion. If they forget the deeds of their
ancestors, they will lose their identity for centuries.

Second, ancestor worship has practical and profound meanings. It helps parents educate their
children how to show gratitude toward their ancestors, learn from their values, models,
personalities and their spirit of hard work because the ancestors had to overcome many
difficulties to bring up and nurture new generations of descendants to this day . At the same time,
we should try to overcome the shortcomings of previous generations because they did not have
adequate conditions to learn and were not exposed to modern information technology as is the
generation of the 21st century.

Third, the custom of ancestor worship creates the best opportunities; concurrently, it is the goal
to develop relationships between siblings, relatives and kinship. It is ancestor worship that not
only binds together the members of the nuclear family (parents and children) but also strengthens
extended family relationships and kinship in sharing the same common ancestors. Consequently,
the relationships of uncles, aunts, paternal offspring and maternal offspring show greater
bonding. The anniversaries of deaths or New Year's Days are occasions for gathering a goodly
number of relatives from near and far. They meet each other prior to the ancestor worship, next
to visiting, sharing joys and sorrows, difficulties, and eventually find ways to help each other.
Because their hearts ache when there is blood-shed, or when a person is ill, all of the family
members are worried.
There are many clans who uphold the anniversary of death as being very solemn. The chief of
the clan chairs the ceremony together with the full representation of the relatives for worshiping
their ancestors. Then people discuss ways in which to express their devotion and gratitude to
their common ancestor.

As a result, the kinship relationships in the Vietnamese family have been maintained and
strengthened from generation to generation via the custom of ancestor worship. For example
when celebrating Grave Visiting Day (LễTảo Mộ) in lunar March all the relatives go to the
cemetery together to burn incense and spruce up the grave nice and neatly for the deceased. In
addition, on the Lunar New Year days, family members have to go back to their home town and
together worship their ancestors regardless of whether they live far or near them. This get-
together helps all descendants remember their ancestors’ devotion and cements family bonding
which causes younger generations to feel that they have a need to explore their past and compile
a family tree.

Fourth, it is more important to know that the custom of ancestor worship helps younger
generations to learn to be kind to other human beings, help people in need, become useful and
responsible citizens and contribute their talent and ability to further development and
consolidation of independence, freedom, unification, and the sovereignty of Vietnam.
Fifth, a death anniversary is not about abundance or good foods. When it comes to food it is just
a formality. When they hold the ceremony, they report good daily deeds as well as promise not
to dishonor their ancestors. The most important part of the ceremony is the spirit in which the
heart and decent activities that descendants have applied every day. That is, how the descendants
have followed the good models of the ancestors and the deceased. They treat people with
kindness and perform jobs assigned to them with honor and respect. This brings honor to the
ancestors, the family, the community, and the country.

Sixth, the positive meaning of ancestor worship does not only look to the past in order to praise
their previous work but also look toward the future. The importance of ancestor worship is that
we need to think about our own life: to have a better code of ethics and try to fulfill out assigned
responsibilities.
This is also an opportunity to educate our children to promote and honor the good works of the
ancestors and our past generations. It's the beautiful, rich, and positive value part of our ancestor-
worship. Every one of us needs to preserve and develop this cultural identity.

The Need for not Using Disguised Ancestor Worship to Develop Superstition

We need to fight against superstition. There are those who take advantage of ancestor worship to
develop superstitious activities to fool credulous people.

There are people who believe in superstition, therefore, they go and ask fortunetellers to do
whatever is necessary to be blessed by their ancestors. The fortunetellers tell them to lavish
money on worshiping their ancestors in order to avoid bad luck. These people blindly trust
fortunetellers and as a result this phenomenon quickly and illegally turns into superstitious
activities. Many families have lost their money on these nonsense activities and caused harm to
society.
In addition, some rich and powerful families make use of the death anniversary as a way to invite
guests to attend a grant-raising party. They especially invite people in high positions in order to
make a large sum of money and gain a greater reputation. Through these occasions their
businesses thrive more smoothly. Therefore, we cannot support this because of their trickery and
the dishonoring of their ancestors.

In short, we in Vietnam need to develop a positive and beautiful meaning toward ancestor
worship and promise to do good deeds with honor and respect our deceased. Honoring our
ancestors is a wonderful opportunity for us to educate our descendants about humanity, morality,
good example and bonding and helping our relationships within the family. This has become an
invisible spirit for us with which to overcome challenges and difficulties in building a
prosperous, just, democratic and civilized society.

We in Vietnam do not support the phenomenon of people who use their family’s prestige to
make their businesses run more smoothly, to bully other vulnerable human beings, and take
advantage in order to move up the ladder to higher positions. It is unethical and goes against our
Vietnamese traditions.

Prof. Le Thi

Translated into English by Doan Thi Ngoc