Skip to content

Lễ Hồi linh (rite of bringing back the spirit)

Also called: Rước linh vị về nhà, Phản khốc, An linh, Rước vong về nhà

  • Funeral and mourning rites

Culture and belief A record of custom.

Prayer text for Lễ Hồi linh (rite of bringing back the spirit)2 texts, kept in Vietnamese, with an English summary.

By custom, after the burial the children and grandchildren bring the thần chủ (spirit tablet) or the portrait back to the mourning altar to be worshipped morning and evening until the day the mourning ends. The pagoda calls it the lễ an linh (rite of settling the spirit).

At a glance

When it is held
After the burial, when the portrait or spirit tablet is brought from the grave back home
For whom
The newly deceased (before the spirit tablet at the mourning altar)
Where
The mourning altar at home
Who makes the offering
The eldest son or the eldest grandson

Each family and each region may do it differently.

The offering tray

Folk practice

When
After the lễ thành phần (component rite), when the portrait or spirit tablet is brought from the grave back
Offering
Other
A modest offering presented before the spirit tablet

Buddhist

When
When arriving home or at the pagoda from the grave (the lễ An linh)

Steps of the rite

Used across Vietnam, Folk practice

  1. Bring the portrait or spirit tablet (thần chủ) from the grave back
  2. Place it on the mourning altar (linh điện)
  3. Read the văn khấn hồi linh (prayer text for bringing back the spirit)
  4. After that, perform the lễ chầu tổ (rite of paying respects to the ancestors) at the main altar

Used across Vietnam, Buddhist

  1. Install the hương linh (spirit) so that incense and smoke may be offered in worship
  2. Worship at a separate altar for two years, at least 100 days, before joining the common altar with the ancestors

Where the sources differ

  • Where the prayer is read: in some places it is read right at the grave area before bringing the spirit home, in others it is read only after arriving home (according to some guides).

Communities and regions

Sources

  • Văn khấn trong lễ tang (vankhan.vn)
  • 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.