Lễ Chầu tổ (ceremony of reporting to the ancestors)
Also called: Triều tổ lễ cáo, Triệu tổ, Yết tổ, Cáo tổ
- Funeral and mourning rites
Culture and belief A record of custom.
By custom, the descendants report to the ancestors that someone in the household has just died. Sources place this ceremony at two different times: before the funeral procession (carrying the hồn bạch (white soul cloth) or the linh vị (spirit tablet) to report to the ancestors) or after burial and the hồi linh (rite of bringing back the soul).
At a glance
- When it is held
- One guide gives it after the hồi linh (rite of bringing back the soul); old books and the pagoda place it before the day of the funeral procession
- For whom
- Tiên tổ (forebears) at the main altar or the clan house
- Who makes the offering
- Hậu duệ tôn (the descendants) obeying the elders of the household
Each family and each region may do it differently.
The offering tray
Folk practice, Address to the ancestors
- Where the offerings are set
- The main altar for worshipping the ancestors; younger branches report at the clan-branch house
| Offering | Vegetarian or not | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Incense, lamps, candles | ||
| Hương hoa, chuối oản, trầu cau, đèn nến, xôi gà | Meat or fish | Listed in the prayer text |
Buddhist, Address to the ancestors
- When
- About two days before the day of the coffin's departure (lễ Triệu tổ)
- Where the offerings are set
- Tự đường (clan house)
| Offering | Notes |
|---|---|
| Objects | |
| Linh vị (spirit tablet), di ảnh (portrait), bát nhang (incense bowl) and offerings | Required |
Steps of the rite
Used across Vietnam, Folk practice, Address to the ancestors
- Report to the ancestors that the relative has died and has been buried
Used across Vietnam, Buddhist, Address to the ancestors
- The bereaved family invites the linh vị, di ảnh and bát nhang to the tự đường
- Place the linh vị on a small table facing the ancestors' altar
- The descendants put down their staffs and mourning caps, then perform the rite reporting to the ancestors
Where the sources differ
- When it is performed: one guide places Lễ Chầu tổ after the Hồi linh rite, once burial is complete; the book Việt Nam phong tục places the reporting to the ancestral shrine within the lễ chuyển cữu (rite of moving the coffin) on the day before the funeral (originally the rite of carrying the coffin, now only the hồn bạch is carried, and a household without its own ancestral house turns the coffin one round); Buddhist guidance places the lễ Triệu tổ (rite of summoning the ancestors) about two days before the day of the coffin's departure.
Communities and regions
Sources
- Văn khấn trong lễ tang (vankhan.vn)
- Việt Nam phong tục, thiên I chương IX Tang ma (vi.wikisource.org)
- Nghi thức tang lễ theo truyền thống Phật giáo (phatgiao.org.vn)
Part of the open datasets Types of Vietnamese offering rites and Vietnamese offering procedures, licensed CC BY 4.0.
More ritesDeath anniversaries, Tết, the home, business, the life cycle, village and ethnic rites.Open