Ancestor Worship of Vietnamese People: Origins, Norms, and What Has Changed

Title: Ancestor worship among the Vietnamese: origins, norms, and what has changed

What is ancestor worship and why is it so deeply rooted in the Vietnamese?

Ancestor worship is the whole body of ritual and offering practices through which people express sincere reverence, the moral principle of remembering the source when drinking water, and gratitude to ancestors, grandparents and parents who gave them life and built a life for their descendants. For a long time, ancestor worship has been a custom, a moral standard and a principle of how to be a person, and at the same time an important part of the spiritual life of the Vietnamese people.

It should be said clearly from the outset: this is a folk belief, not a religion with its own body of doctrine. It exists alongside and blends into many religions in Vietnam such as Buddhism, Catholicism and Caodaism. That is why a family of any faith usually has an ancestor altar in the home.

What is notable is that this custom does not demand a lavish tray of offerings. It is enough to light a stick of fragrant incense at the ancestor altar on festivals, Tết, or the death anniversary, and the descendants in the family can still express sincere reverence, turn toward their roots, and remember those who have passed away. In other words, the core of ancestor worship lies in attitude and remembrance, not in the scale of the offerings.

Is ancestor worship a religion?

Not exactly. Ancestor worship is a folk belief that exists alongside religions rather than being a religion with its own systematic doctrine. It is a set of practices and beliefs tied to remembering and honouring deceased relatives within the lineage.

Because it is a belief rather than a religion, it blends easily into the lives of Buddhists, Catholics and Caodaists. That is also why most Vietnamese families, whatever their religion, have an ancestor altar placed in a dignified position in the home.

How is the ancestor altar arranged and where is it placed?

The altar is the purest and most sacred place in the house, expressing deeply the spiritual faith of the Vietnamese; the filial devotion to ancestors, grandparents and parents; and the remembrance of the merit of birth and nurture of earlier generations. As the seat where the family's forebears reside, the altar is usually placed in the central and highest position in the house.

The basic structure of the altar includes: in the centre an incense bowl symbolising the universe, with a stand on the incense bowl for placing coil incense; at the two outer corners of the altar there are always two lamps (or candles) symbolising the Sun on the left and the Moon on the right. Whenever there is an offering, the head of the household lights the lamps (lights the candles). Right behind the incense bowl there is usually a three-legged cauldron, its lid painted with a unicorn, meaning the power from above keeps watch over the spirit of descendants when they stand before the altar.

In the past, in better-off households, the ritual objects were lacquered and gilded; there were enough ancestral tablets for four generations of worship, namely cao, tằng, tổ, khảo. The tablets were made of jujube wood, inscribed with the name, family name, title, and dates of birth and death of the ancestors. Phan Kế Bính in Việt Nam phong tục (1915) notes that the private family shrine is where the cao, tằng, tổ, khảo are worshipped at the central altar, for wealthy households, together with two side altars for Thổ công, Táo quân and Nghệ sư; while for commoner households, if there is no separate shrine, an altar is set up right in the living house, and however poor they are, they never lack an altar..

According to Toan Ánh (2001), ancestral tablets are kept for only four generations or fewer; by the fifth generation the tablet of the cao tổ is taken away and buried, the higher generations are moved up one rank, and the newly deceased takes the place of the khảo. This custom is called ngũ đại mai thần chủ (burying the tablet at the fifth generation). Also according to Toan Ánh (2001), the tablet is about two and a half tấc long, with the family name and title written in the middle, the dates of birth and death of the ancestor on either side, and it is kept covered in a square box placed inside a long cabinet, opened only when offerings are made. This is a practice recorded in books, not a mandatory rule for every household: many ordinary families rarely set up tablets, and instead place a cabinet and a small platform or throne symbolising the presence of the ancestors.

The Vietnamese also pay great attention to the direction the altar faces. Usually, in the Buddhist view, the south is the direction of bát nhã, that is wisdom, the direction of creativity, of abundant vitality and full yang energy. Besides that, many households also place the altar facing west, because this direction is thought to accord with the interplay of yin and yang, and so brings stability and development, and the deities and ancestors are peacefully seated. It should be noted that these are folk notions handed down, with no single standard binding on every family.

Why do the Vietnamese avoid speaking the names of ancestors?

According to Toan Ánh (2001), the custom of name avoidance stems from the view that ancestors are those who have passed away and so must be guarded all the more carefully. People in the household avoid mentioning the names of deceased grandparents and parents, and are also careful in speech and behaviour so that outsiders have no occasion to call out the names of one's ancestors, since doing so is considered a serious insult.

The clearest expression is during the death anniversary offering. When the names of ancestors must be invoked in the prayer, the head of the household prays very softly, fearing that praying aloud might be heard by others and become disrespectful. Young children are also not allowed to know the names of ancestors, lest children mention them carelessly and commit an offence against their elders and bring a reputation of unfilial conduct on their parents. Before naming a child, parents must avoid giving a name that duplicates an ancestor's name. Toan Ánh (2001) notes that the custom of name avoidance is no longer seen in urban areas, but many rural areas still keep it.

These are records of the customs of the Kinh people, mainly in the North, and should not be generalised into a common rule for all regions or all ethnic groups.

On what occasions do the Vietnamese offer incense to ancestors?

On death anniversaries, and on the sóc and vọng days, festivals and Tết, the incense and offerings at the altar are tended regularly. When the household has a major event such as a son's wedding, a daughter's marriage, building a house, or examinations, the Vietnamese also sincerely light a stick of fragrant incense to report to the ancestors and to pray that the ancestors will bless them so that everything goes smoothly.

Besides each person's own death anniversary, there are also communal offering occasions during the year. The full moon of the first lunar month is an occasion to invite the ancestors to witness and reunite with their descendants. Thanh Minh is the occasion for tomb-sweeping and tidying the ancestral graves. The full moon of the seventh lunar month is tied to the Vu Lan festival of filial piety and the ceremony of pardoning wandering souls. Tất niên and Giao thừa at Tết are also times to invite the ancestors to witness and reunite with their descendants. Each of these occasions has its own article for detailed reference.

It can be said that every event in the family is reported by the head of the household to the ancestors. The space around the altar is where descendants talk, so the place of worship is also a place that connects family affection.

The table below summarises the common occasions of ancestor worship and their main meanings:

On the milestones of the first and final anniversaries, Phan Kế Bính's Việt Nam phong tục (1915) states clearly: after one year comes the first anniversary, called the lễ tiểu tường, at which the mourning implements such as the thorn staff and mourning hat are put aside, but mourning dress is still worn until the end of three years; the anniversary at two years is called đại tường. When two months have passed since the completion of đại tường, people set a date to perform the ceremony of removing mourning, called đàm tế; at that point mourning dress is fully taken off and everyday formal dress is worn.. Thus, according to the old rites, the final anniversary falls at two full years after the death. The common way of speaking today in many places, calling the final anniversary the anniversary of the third year, counts the years as actually elapsed, which differs from the two-year milestone in Phan Kế Bính's book. Readers should know both ways of speaking in order to compare with their own clan's customs.

How does the lineage anniversary and the clan hall differ from the anniversary at home?

Besides the ancestor anniversary at home, the Vietnamese also have the lineage anniversary. In Vietnam, blood relations are quite complex. The family is only a relatively independent unit, because between families within a certain scope there exists a binding relationship that people call họ hàng, dòng tộc (kin and clan).

Each clan has a common founding ancestor and a genealogy book recording the names, titles, and dates of birth and death of the founder and of members of the clan in order, so that everyone can trace their origins. The descendants in the clan establish a Từ đường (clan hall) to worship the founding ancestor. The clan head is the one who receives the incense fire of the ancestors, and so is responsible for arranging the lineage anniversary. On the day of the lineage anniversary, all descendants must contribute to the offering.

As for the genealogy book, Phan Kế Bính (1915) says that every clan hall has a register recording the order of generations along with the names, titles, and dates of birth and death of the founder and of members of the household; great families also record the achievements and deeds of the founder and the burial places, so the genealogy is regarded as a book of history within the family. Toan Ánh (2001) also notes that the genealogy is kept at the clan hall, stored in a long cabinet, and for clans that print the genealogy, each branch is given a copy so that descendants know the story of their founder.

According to an additional record by Bùi Xuân Mỹ (2001), another case is that some clans do not build a hall but instead erect an open-air platform with a stone stele inscribed with the names of the ancestors; on the occasion of the ancestor anniversary or when a branch of the clan conducts its rites, the whole clan or that branch goes out to the open-air platform to make offerings.. Also according to Bùi Xuân Mỹ (2001), many clans divide into branches, and besides the common ancestor anniversary of the whole clan, each branch also has its own ancestor anniversary and builds its own hall called a ban chi từ đường (branch hall).

Thus, the anniversary at home is directed at the direct forebears within the family, while the lineage anniversary and the clan hall extend to the scope of the clan with a common founding ancestor. These two levels complement each other, forming the multi-layered network of worship of the Vietnamese.

What moral values does ancestor worship teach?

Most Vietnamese people acknowledge that ancestor worship plays an important role in cultivating and teaching the fine traditional moral qualities to members of the family. The results of the author's 2015 survey show that as many as 87.9% of respondents believed that maintaining the custom of ancestor worship where their family lives contributes to teaching their family's moral tradition, while those who did not believe in this value accounted for only 0.4%.

Those who believe that ancestor worship has a role in teaching the family's moral tradition also hold that through ancestor worship they and their family members cultivate many fine moral qualities, such as gratitude, filial devotion, compassion, the spirit of sacrifice, the spirit of striving, and the virtues of diligence, industriousness and hard work. The greatest impact of ancestor worship on the formation of the morality of the Vietnamese people is gratitude and filial devotion toward the generations of ancestors, grandparents and parents.

The author Nguyễn Hạnh, in the book Văn hóa tín ngưỡng Việt Nam, wrote: "In the folk beliefs of the Vietnamese, the summit of the worldview is the Way of Worshipping Heaven, the summit of the view of life is the Way of Being Human, in which the Way of Filial Piety stands first. Both the worldview and the view of life of the Vietnamese begin with the word ÂN/ƠN (gratitude)." Gratitude is expressed with particular depth through ancestor worship. The core value of this belief is gratitude for the birth, nurture, love, care and protection that grandparents, parents and earlier generations gave to later generations.

Descendants express their gratitude to their ancestors not only through respect, care and attention to parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents while they are alive, but also through worshipping them after they have died.

Why is it said that the example of adults matters more than words?

The reverent attitude and behaviour of adults in the family toward the ancestors is very significant for teaching filial devotion to family members, especially to children. This is drawn from in-depth interviews with 27 adults (aged 25 to 87) in three provinces and cities: Bắc Ninh, Hà Nội and Ninh Bình.

One of those interviewed said: "if you want to teach filial devotion to the children and descendants in the house, the parents must be a bright example of filial devotion. Parents must show remembrance and make proper offerings to grandparents and ancestors, and always remind [the children] of the merit of the ancestors toward the family while they were alive. When children see their parents' actions like that, they will certainly respect their parents and be obedient and treat them well. If parents do not treat their own parents well and neglect the offerings, children will not respect their parents, nor will they respect the worship of their parents later when their parents have gone to join the ancestors."

Thus it can be seen that people are very clearly aware that ancestor worship is a direct and effective means of teaching filial devotion. Through ancestor worship in the family, the tradition of gratitude, of remembering the source when drinking water and remembering the planter when eating the fruit, of Vietnamese families and of the Vietnamese nation, will be preserved and continue to be handed down forever, even though the scale, form and structure of the Vietnamese family may change under the impact of objective factors.

What is special about the altar at Tết?

Tết is the occasion for family and relatives to gather, and the occasion for the Vietnamese to show sincere reverence to their ancestors, always hoping that the forebears will join their descendants in welcoming a new Spring of peace and prosperity. That is why the Vietnamese, wherever they go and whatever they do, will return to their ancestral homeland at Tết, light a stick of fragrant incense at the ancestor altar, and respectfully report to their forebears.

According to the traditional view of the Vietnamese, people have ancestors and origins, as a tree has roots and a river has a source. The ancestor altar is kept clean to show the filial reverence of descendants, and cleaning the altar is always done carefully and meticulously. In this task, rural people do it earlier than urban people. Before the full moon of the twelfth lunar month (the 15th of the twelfth lunar month), households have already begun sweeping the worship space, polishing ritual objects such as incense burners, bronze cauldrons and candlesticks, and arranging everything to prepare for sending ông Công ông Táo (the kitchen god) up to report to heaven. For urban people, it is on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, after the offering to ông Công and ông Táo, that the cleaning and decorating of the altar is carried out. Heads of household hold that this is the time when the deities are away, so they take the opportunity to tidy the place of worship to welcome Tết, making sure that by the night of the 30th of Tết, when the deities return, everything has been completed beautifully.

The incense used at the altar during Tết is either coil incense or pressed incense. In some places people use large incense sticks, the aim being for the incense to burn long and burn continuously through the Tết days. As for flowers at the altar, there are flowers in vases and flowers arranged on plates. For the Tết altar, people usually keep both kinds. In addition, to bring out the atmosphere of traditional Tết, there is usually a peach branch or an apricot branch in a large porcelain vase. The flowers chosen for the altar are usually fragrant flowers such as tuberose, lily, rose and chrysanthemum.

The five-fruit tray is an indispensable part of the Tết altar, meaning the number 5, representing the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire and earth, and representing the five constant virtues: Nhân (benevolence), Nghĩa (righteousness), Lễ (propriety), Trí (wisdom) and Tín (trust). People choose five kinds of fruit with a sensible arrangement and colour scheme to display attractively. Usually the five fruits comprise five fruits of five different colours such as green banana, yellow pomelo, red persimmon, white pear and orange tangerine, symbolising the wishes for: phú (wealth), quý (honour), thọ (long life), khang (good health) and ninh (peace).

According to the traditional custom of the Vietnamese, bánh chưng and bánh dày are the two things symbolising Heaven and Earth; they are also cakes made from staple food, symbolising fullness and prosperity, and are indispensable offerings. When arranging the offerings, take care to place the cakes in pairs for the complete harmony of the husband and wife relationship. Besides the above offerings, there are also a tray of betel and areca, a cup of water, and various other cakes, fruits and foods. The peach branch placed on the altar is held to have the power to ward off evil spirits and all that is bad, and its red colour contains a great vitality. Therefore the bright peach blossom is a prayer and a blessing for the beginning of Spring. A sugarcane is placed beside the altar, with the implication of giving the elders a staff to lean on as they come back to rejoice with their descendants. These are folk notions handed down, not things that have been verified.

The ancestor ceremony in weddings and the rites of the life cycle

At a wedding, when the new daughter-in-law or the new son-in-law joins the family, they must come before the altar to perform the ancestor ceremony and be introduced to the ancestors. The ancestor ceremony is a mandatory procedure in the weddings of almost every family. The reason for these actions is that the Vietnamese always believe that between the living and the dead there is a close connecting thread, and that they support one another.

Descendants keep to moral conduct and reverently worship and report to their forebears. The ancestors in turn shelter and guide later generations, so the death anniversary offering is a moment of sacred and wondrous harmony between yin and yang. This is an explanation in the nature of folk belief, not a scientific assertion, but it accurately reflects the mentality of the Vietnamese over many generations.

What has changed and what remains intact?

Many centuries have passed, and the manner and conceptions of ancestor worship among the Vietnamese have in some respects changed a great deal, but the greatest meaning remains intact. The Vietnamese regard the worship of ancestors as one of the moral principles of being human. It is the form through which descendants express filial devotion and gratitude to those who gave them life.

Looking at the changes, a few points stand out clearly. First, the space for worship in urban areas is usually more confined than in rural areas, with the altar fitted compactly into a townhouse or apartment. Second, the pace of industrial life means that daily incense and offerings may be less frequent, giving way to death anniversaries, sóc and vọng days, and Tết. Third, the material form of ritual objects is more diverse, from traditional lacquered and gilded objects to modern products. Even so, the core layer of meaning, namely gratitude, filial devotion and connection between generations, remains the anchor that holds this custom through time.

The custom of name avoidance is a concrete example of that change. Toan Ánh (2001) notes that this custom is no longer seen in urban areas, but many rural areas still keep it, and naming a child so as to avoid duplicating an ancestor's name is still something many families pay attention to.

One point should be made clear about consistency of understanding: folk sources and research alike stress that ancestor worship is a long-standing custom, a moral standard and a principle of how to be a person, and at the same time an important part of the spiritual life of the Vietnamese people. However, when it comes to details such as the direction of the altar, the number of generations worshipped, or how the altar is arranged at Tết, different regions and clans may have their own conventions. This article presents the common understanding recorded in the reference materials, and readers should treat it as a frame of reference rather than a rigid rule for every family.

It should also be noted that the books used here are materials describing customs, mainly recording the Kinh people of the North, and do not state a fieldwork method; the explanations of the meaning of rites, or of ancestors blessing and sheltering their descendants, are traditional notions, not research conclusions. The presentation in this article therefore names the author and year of publication right in the sentence so that readers can easily check, and does not generalise to regions or ethnic groups that the books do not mention.