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Lễ Chúc thực (the rite of offering rice to the newly deceased)

Also called: Dâng cơm, Triêu tịch điện, Triệu tịch điện văn, Chiêu tịch diện, Cúng cơm trong 100 ngày, Hiến thực, Tiến linh

  • Funeral and mourning rites

Culture and belief A record of custom.

Prayer text for Lễ Chúc thực (the rite of offering rice to the newly deceased)5 texts, kept in Vietnamese, with an English summary.

By custom, the children and grandchildren offer rice to the newly deceased as when they were alive: while the coffin is still at home it is called chúc thực, after burial it is called triêu tịch điện, and the offerings continue until the tuần tốt khốc (100th-day ceremony) and then stop. In Nam Bộ this practice is called hiến thực, and on the first day of the lunar month and the fifteenth day of the lunar month a larger feast is prepared, called cúng tuần.

At a glance

When it is held
Every day, two times, morning and evening, from when the coffin is still at home until the 100th-day ceremony (at pagodas: until 49 days)
For whom
The newly deceased

Each family and each region may do it differently.

The offering tray

Region:

Nationwide

Folk practice

When
Every day, two times, morning and evening, from after the lễ thành phục (rite of assuming mourning) until the tuần tốt khốc (100 days)
Where the offerings are set
The linh tọa (seat of the soul); in great households the hồn bạch (spirit tablet) is carried from the linh sàng (funeral bed) to the linh tọa
Who makes the offering
The children and grandchildren in the household
OfferingVegetarian or notNotes
Objects
A basin of water, a face towel, betel leaves and areca nuts in the morningVegetarianOffered as when the person was alive
Other
Rice, soup, and a few dishes according to the family's meal
Tea, rice wine, water
Incense, lamp, water, tea or wineVegetarian

Buddhist

When
Every day, three times before burial; after that until the end of 49 days
Where the offerings are set
The linh altar (bàn vong)
OfferingVegetarian or not
Tea, rice wine, water
Morning teaVegetarian
Other
Rice at noon and in the evening

South

Southern Vietnam (Nam Bộ, no finer detail in the source), Folk practice

When
Every day, two or three meals after burial, until the lễ tốt khốc at 100 days
OfferingNotes
Other
The daily offering riceRequired
A more generous offering tray on the days of sóc and vọng (first and fifteenth day of the lunar month)Called cúng tuần

Southern Vietnam (Nam Bộ, no finer detail in the source), Buddhist

When
Two meals a day, morning and evening, while the coffin is still kept at home (the lễ triêu tịch)
Where the offerings are set
In front of the coffin
Who makes the offering
Family members kneel before the coffin; the monk performs the rite, chanting sutras and reading the Triêu tịch (morning and evening) sacrificial oration.
Offering
Other
Rice offered at each meal

Steps of the rite

Used across Vietnam, Folk practice

  1. In the morning, bring a basin of water, a face towel, betel leaves and areca nuts to the place of the bed, cry three times, carry the hồn bạch (spirit tablet) out to the linh tọa, then make the offering
  2. In the evening, after the offering is made, carry it back to the linh sàng (funeral bed), lower the curtain and cover with a blanket
  3. At the tuần tốt khốc (100th-day ceremony) a feast is held, and then the twice-daily offerings stop

Used across Vietnam, Buddhist

  1. In the morning tea is offered, at noon and in the evening rice is offered, following a simple rite called tiến linh
  2. Near the day of the funeral there is the lễ triêu điện in the morning (relatives read ai điếu) and the tịch điện in the evening (children and grandchildren of the clan)

Southern Vietnam (Nam Bộ, no finer detail in the source), Folk practice

  1. The tang chủ (chief mourner) offers rice every day, called the lễ hiến thực
  2. On the first day of the lunar month and the fifteenth day of the lunar month a larger feast is prepared (cúng tuần)
  3. The hiến thực ends after 100 days, on the occasion of tốt khốc

Southern Vietnam (Nam Bộ, no finer detail in the source), Buddhist

  1. Set out the rice offering
  2. Family members come and kneel before the coffin
  3. The monk chants sutras and reads the Triêu tịch văn

Where the sources differ

  • How long rice is offered: the book Việt Nam phong tục and some prayer-text guides say until 100 days; Buddhist guidance answers in the spirit of Buddhism that offerings are needed only until the end of 49 days.

Communities and regions

Sources

  • Việt Nam phong tục, thiên I chương IX Tang ma (vi.wikisource.org)
  • Văn khấn trong lễ tang (vankhan.vn)
  • Sau 49 ngày, có cần để bàn vong và cúng cơm hàng ngày? (phatgiao.org.vn)
  • Nghi thức tang lễ theo truyền thống Phật giáo (phatgiao.org.vn)
  • Sự hỗn dung văn hóa trong tín ngưỡng thờ cúng tổ tiên ở Nam bộ (giacngo.vn)
  • Lý Việt Dũng, Nghi thức và văn cúng đám tang ở Nam Bộ, Tạp chí Nghiên cứu và Phát triển, số 2 (73), 2009 (vjol.info.vn)

Part of the open datasets Types of Vietnamese offering rites and Vietnamese offering procedures, licensed CC BY 4.0.

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