Family Altars: How Northern and Southern Vietnamese Arrangements Differ

The Ancestral Altar: How the Arrangement of Northern and Southern Vietnamese Homes Differs

What is the Vietnamese custom of ancestor worship?

Ancestor worship is an indispensable part of every Vietnamese family, regardless of wealth or social status. The custom originated in the agricultural economy of the old patriarchal society, and was later given a philosophical foundation by Confucianism through the concept of filial piety. By the fifteenth century, the Lê dynasty institutionalised ancestor worship: the Hồng Đức Code stipulated that descendants must worship ancestors for five generations (parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparents), and ruled that the rice fields set aside for incense and offerings could not be mortgaged or sold even if the descendants were poor. By the Nguyễn era, the rites of ancestor worship were set out clearly in the book Thọ mai gia lễ.

In the South, ancestor worship likewise springs from the same root of national consciousness, but it finds expression in diverse shades across different historical and cultural coordinates. The sources all stress one common point: the centripetal force is gratitude to one's origins and the bonding of the clan.

What are the characteristics of the Northern ancestral altar?

How is the Northern ancestral altar arranged?

According to the widely cited description from the Government Electronic Newspaper, the traditional Vietnamese house usually has three or five bays, and the central bay is the most solemn place, the heart of the house, so the altar is usually set up in the middle of this bay. In poor families, the altar might be just a panel of bamboo wattle between the two inner columns of the central bay, with a small incense bowl inside. In families of middling means or above, the altar is properly carpentered; some householders use the top of a cupboard as the altar or build a shelf mounted on the wall. Whatever the design, the altar must always occupy a solemn position and be at a suitable height so that, when making offerings, everyone can show reverent respect toward the ancestors.

The structure of the Northern altar, as described in this source, includes: a shrine cabinet, a throne, or a spirit tablet, carved rather elaborately and carefully lacquered and gilded. In front of the spirit tablet stands a very tall incense table. On the incense table, in the centre, is the incense bowl for inserting incense during offerings; the bowl is carefully tended and must not be moved. Behind the incense bowl is a small stool, on which stand three lidded cups with knobs on the lids; these three cups hold three small cups of wine during offerings. Day to day the cups are kept covered to avoid dust and are only opened on Tết, on the fifteenth and the first of the lunar month.

On either side of the incense bowl are two lamps (two oil lamps) or two candles; today in the cities people light two electric lamps. Near the two sides of the incense bowl, besides the two lamps, there are sometimes two cranes flanking it. Outside the two lamps, near the two ends of the incense table, are two incense tubes for holding incense. There is also a vase or a pair of vases displayed on the altar for flowers on death anniversaries and at Tết. A plaque hung high and horizontally across the front edge of the altar, bearing very large Chinese characters (many households use Nôm characters, usually three or four), is the hoành phi (horizontal panel). On the two side columns or the two side walls hang parallel couplets.

According to Toan Ánh (2001), besides the ancestral altar placed in the centre of the main house, usually called the Upper house, the Vietnamese home has several other altars: the altar of Thổ công (the Earth God), the altar of Thánh sư (also called Nghệ sư or Tiên sư in some places), the altar of Bà cô Ông mãnh (unmarried deceased relatives), the altar of Thần tài (the God of Wealth), and the altar of Tiền chủ (the former owner of the land). The author also notes that cramped homes sometimes just mount a plank on the wall or use the top of a cupboard as a temporary altar for worshipping the ancestors. Phan Kế Bính (1915) records that wealthy households had a high ancestral altar for the cao, tằng, tổ and khảo generations in the centre, with a side altar for Thổ công, Táo quân, Nghệ sư and Bà cô Ông mãnh; while commoners worshipped right in their living house, and however poor they were, they still had an altar.

According to Bùi Xuân Mỹ (2001), a newly deceased person has a mourning altar set up in a side bay, not worshipped together with the ancestors; one must wait until the mourning period ends before the tablet is brought over to be joined to the ancestral worship. The same author notes that the altar of Bà cô Ông mãnh is usually placed under the incense table of the ancestral altar, because in folk belief those who died young cannot sit on the same level as the elders.

As for the number of generations worshipped, the Hồng Đức Code stipulated that descendants must worship ancestors for five generations. The Government Electronic Newspaper cites this rule when discussing the legal and moral foundations of the worship custom in the North.

As for offerings, each act of worship depends on whether the household is poor or wealthy and on the occasion; offerings may include wine, flowers and fruit, incense and votive paper, glutinous rice and sweet soup, oản cakes, a savoury feast, and sometimes paper offerings. When necessary, the offerings need only be a cup of rainwater and a stick of incense lit on the altar. During a ceremony the altar must have lamps or candles lit. Incense on the altar is always lit in odd numbers (one or three sticks), and the sticks must be inserted straight. When the incense stubs in the bowl are full, the householder lights incense to ask the ancestors' permission, removes the stubs, burns them to ash and pours the ash into a pond or lake.

At Tết, the decoration of the altar depends on each household's circumstances, but every home must without fail display a tray of five fruits. Usually the five fruits are five kinds of different colours, such as green bananas, yellow pomelos, red persimmons, white pears and orange mandarins, symbolising five wishes: phú (wealth), quý (honour), thọ (long life), khang (good health) and ninh (peace). The Government Electronic Newspaper reports that Northerners lean more toward symbolic meaning: a Buddha's hand fruit or a bunch of bananas like the protective hand of the Buddha over everyone; pomelos and watermelons expressing fullness, completeness and vitality; the bright colours of mandarins and persimmons symbolising luck, prosperity and good fortune.

It should be noted that Toan Ánh (2001), Bùi Xuân Mỹ (2001) and Song Mai, Quỳnh Trang (eds., 2006) are books describing the customs of the Kinh people, mainly in the North. The descriptions above are the basis for the Northern section and for the Northern column in the comparison table; they are not used to infer anything about the South or other ethnic groups.

What are the characteristics of the Southern ancestral altar?

How is the Southern ancestral altar arranged?

According to Đại Đoàn Kết, in the South every Vietnamese family, poor or rich, establishes a place to worship the ancestors. Poor households set up a simple place of worship, better-off households have a separate worship room, and wealthy households may build a separate ancestral house. This source cites Sơn Nam in the book Thuần phong mỹ tục Việt Nam: in the old days in the South the grandparents' altar was called a giường thờ (worship bed), which was the bed the parents used to sleep in, worshipped right in the middle of the house. In front of the worship bed stood a worship cupboard. As the need for space shrank, the worship bed was gradually replaced by a low table placed against the wall, on which food was laid out at giỗ (death anniversary) ceremonies. In front of the worship bed was a fairly tall worship cupboard or altar that screened it from view. At the end of the nineteenth century, altars had four legs and were taller than the worship bed.

From the 1930s, the worship cupboard appeared, compactly designed and modelled on the French cupboard style of the reign of King Louis XVI. Many families used the worship cupboard in place of the worship bed and altar. The famous line of worship cupboards was made by craftsmen of Gò Công (Mỹ Tho) in Ấp Ông Non, with a front closed by a large curved mango-shaped panel, carved with two rows of closely linked chains representing the two doors. Inside the worship cupboard were kept worship objects such as incense and lamps, flowers and fruit, cups and teapots, bottles of precious wine, various administrative papers, household registers, land records and family genealogies. Wealthy families bought large glass cabinets to serve as worship cupboards, and later sideboards, on which were placed the portrait photographs of grandparents and parents.

In spacious houses, the altar has two tiers: the inner one is a low dining table, where offerings are laid out and where mementoes of the deceased are kept, such as betel quids, trays, walking sticks and hats; the outer one is the worship cupboard or worship chair holding ritual vessels such as incense burners, censers, candlesticks, plates, fruit trays, vases, tea cups and bowls of water (according to Trương Ngọc Tường, Nguyễn Ngọc Phan, Hướng Thu Hương, Hỏi đáp về tập tục tín ngưỡng và lễ thức theo vòng đời người xưa và nay).

Normally, looking at the ancestral altar of a family from the outside in, one sees: the worship cupboard, on which are placed an incense bowl, a set of bronze incense vessels (a censer for burning agarwood and two candlesticks), with wealthy families having large bronze sets and candlesticks; a flower vase (on the right) and a plate of fruit (on the left) following the rule "east vase, west fruit", and three cups of offering water. The bàn nghi (worship table) holds the spirit tablets and portrait photographs of the deceased and is where the offering tray of rice is placed during worship. A partition panel may or may not be present. In the old days, poor rural households had only a partition on the altar, sometimes made of a bồ (pressed-board) panel, with the portrait photographs and the incense bowl placed on a plank.

In houses with three bays: the middle bay worships the Buddha, saints or the Cao Đài altar; the left bay worships the Cửu Huyền Thất Tổ (Nine Generations of Ancestors); the right bay worships the deceased grandparents and parents. In the central bay the Cửu Huyền Thất Tổ is worshipped, and on the left the deceased grandparents and parents. In families with a tradition of practising as ritual masters, the Cao Huyền Cố Tổ (or Cao Huyền Thất Tổ) is worshipped. Ordinary families worship the Cửu Huyền Thất Tổ. Some families worship the Cửu Huyền Thất Tổ at the very top, with the clan hierarchy below. Altars to the Buddha, Quan Âm and Quan Công are placed lower, on the right. Or in some old houses there is an altar to Quan Công placed high up, on the left of the ancestral altar.

As for the number of generations worshipped, Đại Đoàn Kết reports that in the old days ancestor worship also included the custom of ngũ đại mai thần chủ: the householder worshipped four generations or more (the father's, grandfather's, great-grandfather's and great-great-grandfather's generations), and when the fifth generation came up, the tablet of the first generation was buried or burned. In the South, the ancestral altar usually honours only two to three generations.

The traditional altar is usually adorned with landscape paintings or ink wash paintings, done on wood, glass or directly on the wall. In the centre is a glass painting bearing characters such as Phúc (Happiness), Lộc (Prosperity) and Thọ (Longevity). The content of these paintings is countryside scenery, houses, rivers, clouds and mountains, boats, flanked by pairs of parallel couplets expressing the descendants' wish that the deceased enjoy a full and warm life in the world beyond. Above and in front of the altar is the horizontal panel bearing lines such as Đức lưu phương, Quang thế trạch, Lan quế đằng phương, Tử tôn vị phát, Vi thiện tối lạc, Đạo lý tối đại. On either side of the horizontal panel hang parallel couplets praising the merits of the ancestors or expressing the gratitude of the descendants.

As for the way portraits are worshipped, in the past the deceased were usually honoured on the ancestral altar with spirit tablets written in Chinese characters; later came black-and-white portrait paintings, then colour paintings, bolster paintings, glass paintings, and once cameras existed, black-and-white photographs and then colour photographs.

As for arrangement when there are several altars, Đại Đoàn Kết cites Trương Ngọc Tường, Nguyễn Ngọc Phan and Hướng Thu Hương: if a house has two altars, one is for the husband's parents and one for the wife's parents; or one for the parents and one for the grandparents. If there are three altars, they are the parents' altar, the grandparents' altar and the ancestors' altar. If there is only one altar, parents, grandparents and ancestors are worshipped together. The arrangement follows the principle that parents are the closest, so their worship is more important than that of the grandparents, and therefore the parents' altar must be placed in the middle of the house or in the important position on the left (the base end of the đòn dông ridge beam); the grandparents' altar is placed on the right (the tip end of the đòn dông), looking from inside the house out. Today, for convenience, one's own parents and one's wife's parents, paternal and maternal grandparents, and siblings are all placed on a single altar. The male and female positions of the deceased on the altar follow the rule "male left, female right" (looking from inside out), though some families, through misunderstanding, arrange them haphazardly; however, the hierarchy of above and below among the generations must always be preserved.

As for the tray of five fruits, the Government Electronic Newspaper reports that Southerners have a way of reading some words in altered or monosyllabic form: mãng cầu (soursop) is reduced to a single syllable as Cầu (satisfying a request), Sung (fullness, abundance), Vừa (a misreading of dừa, coconut), Đủ (a monosyllabic form of đu đủ, papaya) and Xài (a misreading of xoài, mango).

Table comparing the main differences

Why do the altars of the two regions differ?

The reference sources offer several explanations. The Government Electronic Newspaper stresses the historical context: the custom of ancestor worship originated in the agricultural economy of the old patriarchal society; when Confucianism was introduced, filial piety was held in high regard; in the fifteenth century the Lê dynasty institutionalised worship; and in the Nguyễn era the rites were set out clearly in Thọ mai gia lễ. This source also notes that rural house architecture has changed little, so the traditional altar style remains effective, whereas in city houses with modern architecture and interiors, the arrangement and worship objects also change to suit the overall look of the house.

Đại Đoàn Kết explains it in a different direction: the ancestral altar in the South is the product of a historical and cultural process within the custom of ancestor worship in the southern land. It both inherits the cultural tradition of the nation and expresses creativity in the practice of belief in the new land, a blending of core values with the addition of new elements suited to the reverent gaze toward one's origins. According to this source, the appearance of the French-style worship cupboard from the 1930s and the Gò Công lines of worship cupboards are an example of that integration.

Points on which the sources do not agree

It should be noted that the available reference sources do not agree on some details. On the number of generations worshipped, the Government Electronic Newspaper cites the five-generation rule of the Hồng Đức Code when discussing the North, while Đại Đoàn Kết says that in the South the ancestral altar usually honours only two to three generations and that there is the custom of ngũ đại mai thần chủ. The two sources do not directly contradict each other, but neither do they provide direct figures for comparison between the two regions.

On the structure of the altar, the Government Electronic Newspaper describes the Northern altar with its incense table, shrine cabinet, throne, small stool and three wine cups. Đại Đoàn Kết describes the Southern altar with its worship bed, worship cupboard, bàn nghi and set of bronze incense vessels. Neither source provides information about the details of the other side, so it cannot be concluded that any particular detail exists only in one region and not in the other. In addition, the books by Toan Ánh (2001), Bùi Xuân Mỹ (2001) and Song Mai, Quỳnh Trang (eds., 2006) describe only Northern customs, so they are not used to fill in the Southern section.

On the tray of five fruits, the Government Electronic Newspaper offers different explanations for the two regions, but does not state clearly whether this difference is a fixed rule or merely a general tendency.

In closing

The ancestral altars of Vietnamese people in the North and the South alike turn toward the ancestors with gratitude to their origins and the bonding of the clan. The differences in structure, arrangement, number of generations worshipped and choice of the five-fruit tray reflect the historical, cultural and living conditions of each region. The available reference sources describe the two sides in differing degrees of detail and do not agree on some points, so this article presents only what has a basis and notes clearly where it is incomplete.