TL;DR: By common custom, the cô hồn offering (cúng chúng sinh, cúng thí thực) is set in the yard or before the gate, not inside the house; many households turn the tray outward, not toward the house door. The rite is usually held in the late afternoon or evening, and after burning votive paper people scatter rice and salt in all directions. This is a folk belief, not a rule of Buddhist doctrine.
Why must the cô hồn offering tray be placed outside in the yard?
Cúng cô hồn, also called cúng chúng sinh or cúng thí thực, is a rite of giving food to wandering souls with no place to rely on. By common Vietnamese custom, the offering tray is set in the yard, before the gate, or at a street corner, not inside the house. The folk explanation is to avoid "inviting wandering spirits" into the home and to keep wandering souls from mixing with the family's place of worship.
This belief is tied to the distinction between two kinds of rites in the seventh lunar month. Offerings to ancestors and grandparents are made indoors, on the altar. The cô hồn offering is for those who died badly or have no one to worship them, so it must be made outside, outside the family's domain. Placing the tray in the yard is both a spatial boundary and a way to show compassion without affecting worship inside.
Should the tray face outward or toward the house?
In folk practice, many households turn the tray outward, toward the yard, the gate, or the street, not toward the house door. This arrangement rests on the belief that the cô hồn rite invites wandering souls from outside to receive the offerings and then sends them off, rather than inviting them into the house. Popular writings on the cô hồn rite in the three regions only say the tray is set in the yard or before the gate; they do not prescribe a direction for it.
In practice, many families do not fix the tray to a set direction; they simply place it in an open spot outside the door, not directly facing the altar. Many households avoid placing the tray inside the house or turning it inward, believing this would invite spirits into the living space.
When and where is the cô hồn offering made?
By custom, the cô hồn offering is usually made in the late afternoon or evening, at dusk, not at midday. Folk explanation says that daytime has strong dương energy, and weak souls cannot gather to receive offerings, so one must wait until darkness falls. The timing is spread from the 2nd to before noon on the 15th of the seventh lunar month; each household chooses a suitable day.
As for location, the tray is placed in the yard, before the porch, before the gate, or at a street corner or empty lot. After the rite, people burn votive paper and scatter rice and salt in all directions to send the souls on their way.
What is on the offering tray?
Depending on the region, the cô hồn tray has different features. Below are the main points recorded in popular writings on the customs of the three regions:
| Region | Features of the tray | Main items | Ritual practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| North | Pure, simple, avoids meat | Plain rice porridge, popcorn, boiled sweet potato, boiled cassava, rice crackers, lard candy, small change, plain water | Offer in the yard, scatter rice and salt, burn votive paper |
| Central | Meticulous, solemn, influenced by court and Buddhist traditions | Lotus-shaped sticky rice and sweet soup, husband-and-wife cakes, small cakes, votive paper clothes, shoes, paper conical hats | Elders chant, scatter rice and salt in order |
| South | Generous, bustling, includes the "grabbing cô hồn offerings" custom | Roast pig, boiled chicken, fruit cakes, sugarcane sticks as staffs | After the rite, people may grab the offerings, believing the more crowded the luckier |
These are general features; not every family in each region does the same. People in the North avoid meat for fear of stirring greed, anger, and delusion in the souls, while in the South many households offer roast pig and boiled chicken.
Origin of the rite and its meaning
The rite of feeding wandering souls is linked to the Buddhist story of Venerable Ananda meeting a hungry ghost (ngạ quỷ) with a thin body, a throat as small as a needle, and a mouth breathing fire. The ghost warned that Ananda would soon suffer the fate of a hungry ghost unless he gave food to countless hungry ghosts. The Buddha taught Ananda the dharani "Cứu bạt diệm khẩu ngạ quỷ Đà La Ni" to distribute food, helping souls be satisfied and liberated.
In Vietnam, this rite blended with indigenous beliefs and is widely practiced in folk life. Phan Kế Bính records that the full moon of the seventh month is called Tết Trung nguyên; following Buddhist books, people hold it to be the day of vong nhân xá tội, when the dead in the underworld are pardoned for one day, so many households buy votive paper and make offerings to their ancestors[2]. Văn tế thập loại chúng sinh by Nguyễn Du (1766-1820) is one of the representative works expressing compassion for the dead who have no one to rely on. The text opens with the scene of the seventh month's drizzling rain and chilly autumn air, evoking a late-autumn atmosphere and compassion for the "ten kinds of beings"[1]. The work lists many kinds of people who died without support: those killed in battle, the drowned, women who strayed, children who died young, those wrongly imprisoned, and merchants far from home. The text also mentions the "đàn chẩn tế" rite with "what offerings there are: a bowl of porridge and a stick of incense," "a scrap of clothing and a bar of votive gold"[1].
Văn tế thập loại chúng sinh does not mention whether the tray faces outward or inward; that detail belongs to practical custom and is absent from the text.
Is it done the same everywhere?
No. The placement and direction of the tray can differ between regions, lineages, and family circumstances. The most common practice is to set the tray in the yard or before the gate; some households turn it toward the street, others simply place it in an open spot without concern for direction.
Folk wisdom often says sincerity matters more than form, while not placing the tray inside the house is kept in many places.
Taboos when making the cô hồn offering
Besides not placing the tray indoors and not making the offering at midday, some temple guides add that the offered food is not brought back into the house after the rite. These taboos are folk beliefs without scientific verification.
