TL;DR: An anthropological study by Lê Đức Hạnh in 2008, using participant observation and in-depth interviews with people attending star-offering rituals in Hanoi, describes participants as spanning many ages, occupations, and social positions, with reasons ranging from belief in inauspicious stars to seeking peace of mind at the start of the year. Salemink's framework of spiritual security and psychological studies on half-belief help explain why people still attend even when unsure about effectiveness. Star-offering rituals are therefore better understood as a ritual of seeking reassurance than as a precise calculation, and this article does not advise readers either to attend or not to attend.
Star-Offering Rituals in Hanoi: What Do Attendees Believe and Seek?
Lê Đức Hạnh conducted an anthropological study, published in the Journal of Religious Studies in 2008, examining the practice of star-offering rituals among Vietnamese people in the Northern Delta, using Hanoi as the research site; results showed that participants were not uniform in age, occupation, or social position. To clarify the purpose and meaning of this belief practice, the author used participant observation combined with in-depth interviews, and selected interview samples based on meaningful criteria such as gender, age, and occupation. Results showed that reasons for attending were not uniform: some believed in inauspicious stars affecting their destiny, others sought peace of mind for themselves and their families at the start of the year.
This is qualitative research, limited to one urban site, so it cannot be generalized to the whole country. What this article presents below falls within the scope of Hanoi and the Northern Delta during the research period, not a general picture for all Vietnamese people.
How Are Beliefs About Inauspicious Stars and Temple Rituals Described?
According to folk beliefs recorded by Lê Đức Hạnh, each individual, each year, according to cycles of movement in the universe, has their destiny influenced by a few good or bad events, called sao han. For example, a person born in the Bính Tuất year with Earth destiny (Ốc Thượng Thổ) encounters the Thái Dương star; while a person born in the Bính Dần year with Fire destiny (Lư Trung Hỏa) encounters the Thái Bạch star. There are good stars and bad stars: Thái Dương is good for men, bad for women; Thái Âm is good for men, unfavorable for women; Mộc Đức is good for both men and women.
The structure of the phenomenon includes objects of worship being stars, ritual offerings, sutras including nom prayer texts or Buddhist liberation sutras, followers including direct believers, indirect believers, and non-believers, along with intermediary figures who transmit religious behavior such as temple monks, ritual masters, and spirit mediums. The author emphasizes the folk nature of the phenomenon as shown directly in the rituals and sutras.
| Aspect | Content according to Lê Đức Hạnh (2008) |
|---|---|
| Research site | Hanoi, mainly urban, in the Northern Delta |
| Method | Participant observation, in-depth interviews |
| Objects of worship | Stars, distinguished as good and bad stars |
| Rituals and sutras | Offerings, nom prayer texts, Buddhist liberation sutras |
| Followers | Direct believers, indirect believers, and non-believers |
| Intermediary figures | Temple monks, ritual masters, spirit mediums |
| Participation rate (2007) | 42.5% directly offered for themselves and family; 56% did not directly participate, of whom nearly 10% participated regularly |
| Characteristics of participants | Mainly women, middle-aged, common class, working in services, trade, business |
Data from 2007 show that among respondents, 42.5% directly participated in star-offering rituals for themselves and their families; 56% did not directly participate, and nearly 10% of this group participated regularly. Participants were mainly women, middle-aged, of the common class and working in services, trade, and business. The study also cites a 2004 survey by Nguyễn Minh Ngọc, according to which the rate of offering for oneself was 25.4% and for family and others was 65.9%.
Spiritual Security: Why Do People Turn to Rituals?
Oscar Salemink places the concept of spiritual security in relation to existential security, viewing it as an extension of the concept of human security previously defined from economic, political, physical, or ecological aspects. He identifies four types of insecurity requiring spiritual adjustment: physical and mental health problems needing treatment; economic insecurity and market risk, that is, seeking luck; existential insecurity related to death; and the intention to embrace and manage risk.
According to Salemink, the search for spiritual security through religious and magical practices often occurs when insecurities cannot be resolved by other means. Through the lens of human security, he studies religious behaviors as an assertion of personal identity in Vietnam.
This framework helps read star-offering rituals at the start of the year as a way of handling insecurity rather than a calculation. Attendees do not necessarily believe that stars determine destiny; they may be seeking a spiritual anchor for things beyond their control in the coming year. Note that Salemink's survey was conducted in the context of research on mediumship and spirituality in contemporary Vietnam, not a study specifically on star-offering rituals, so applying this framework to star offerings is an interpretation, not a direct conclusion from his data.
Half-Believing but Still Attending: What Do Psychological Studies Help Us Understand?
In 2007, in The Journal of General Psychology, Jeffrey M. Rudski and Ashleigh Edwards published a study discussing factors affecting students' use of rituals and superstitions. This work shows that a person can apply rituals while simultaneously denying their effectiveness. This is a result on a group of students in a Western country, not on Vietnamese people attending star offerings in Hanoi, so it cannot be directly inferred for the Vietnamese case without research on Vietnamese people themselves.
In 2024, Avner Caspi and colleagues published in the Journal of Individual Differences a quantitative survey on the phenomenon of half-belief in superstition. The result is summarized as half-believers do more than they believe. That means ritual behavior is not proportional to level of belief, and people can act as if they believe while self-assessing that they only partly believe.
These two results help explain why a person can say "I don't really believe" yet still attend rituals. Notably, level of belief and level of action do not coincide, so observing behavior is not enough to infer inner belief. Both studies were conducted on groups of non-Vietnamese people, and in contexts different from star-offering rituals, so this is a suggestion for understanding a general mechanism, not evidence about Hanoians attending rituals.
Age-Related Misfortune Beyond the Temple: Traces in Investment Decisions
In 2024, Dai Van Pham published in the Journal of Comparative Economics a study on the influence of superstition on corporate investment behavior, with data from Vietnam. The result is summarized as belief in age-related misfortune leaves measurable traces in corporate investment decisions. Specifically, firms with CEOs aged 49 to 53, a period often considered age-related misfortune in folk belief, tend to reduce investment. This is a quantitative study on Vietnamese corporate data, not a study on individual temple attendance for star offerings.
This result shows that belief in age-related misfortune can leave traces in economic decisions, even when decision-makers do not consider themselves superstitious. The mechanism here is not that stars intervene in investment outcomes, but that belief changes behavior, and behavior changes outcomes. This is a real effect generated from belief, not evidence that the star system predicts correctly. This study was conducted on Vietnamese firms but in a corporate context, not a temple ritual context, so it cannot be directly inferred for people attending star offerings.
Link to an existing article on origins and the Buddhist perspective: Dang sao giai han dau nam: nguon goc, y nghia van hoa va goc nhin tu Phat giao. Link to an article on the limits of saving stars and mitigating stars in Tu Vi: Sao cuu, sao giai han trong tu vi la gi va gioi han thuc su cua chung.
Where Evidence Is Still Lacking
Lê Đức Hạnh's study is qualitative research at one site, mainly Hanoi, with quantitative figures cited from sociological surveys of religion in 1995 and 2007. Results cannot be generalized to the whole country, nor used to speak about attendees in other provinces or rural areas. There is no large-scale quantitative study on star-offering rituals nationwide.
Psychological studies on half-belief and ritual were conducted on groups of non-Vietnamese people, in contexts different from star-offering rituals. There is no direct comparative study of belief levels and ritual participation levels among Vietnamese people attending star offerings. Therefore, applying these results to Hanoians is a theoretical suggestion, not a conclusion from data.
Dai Van Pham's study on the influence of superstition on corporate investment behavior is quantitative research on Vietnamese corporate data, but does not directly measure the beliefs of people attending star offerings. Connecting this result to individual ritual attendance is inference, not a direct result of the study.
How Are Star-Offering Rituals Better Understood?
Star-offering rituals are not a precise calculation of destiny, nor a simple behavior that can be reduced to believing or not believing. Field data in Hanoi show that attendees span many ages and occupations, with reasons ranging from belief in inauspicious stars to seeking peace of mind at the start of the year. Salemink's spiritual security framework helps place ritual attendance in the context of insecurity and the need to assert personal identity. Psychological studies on half-belief show that ritual behavior is not proportional to level of belief. Research on Vietnamese firms shows that belief in age-related misfortune can leave measurable traces in investment decisions, as an effect generated from belief rather than evidence of the effectiveness of stars.
This article does not advise whether or not to attend star-offering rituals. What it does is describe what existing research shows and point out where evidence is still lacking. The Buddhist perspective on star-offering rituals has been presented in the linked article above, and this article does not repeat that part.
