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Cúng tiết Lập xuân (offering on the Lập xuân solar term)

Also called: Lễ cúng Lập xuân, Cúng giao thời tiết Lập xuân

  • Festivals through the year

Culture and belief A record of custom.

Prayer text for Cúng tiết Lập xuân (offering on the Lập xuân solar term)2 texts, kept in Vietnamese, with an English summary.

By custom, Lập xuân is the solar term that opens the twenty-four solar terms; some households hold a ceremony outdoors and then make offerings to the ancestors indoors to welcome the new flow of energy and to cầu mùa (prayer for a good harvest). This ceremony is less common than the other tết, and many households only burn incense with flowers and fruit.

At a glance

When it is held
Lập xuân solar term
For whom
Deities (of which the outdoor offering invokes Thần Nông and the deities of the solar terms); tiền chủ, hậu chủ; ancestors
Where
Two trays: the offering tray to the deities is placed outdoors, the offering tray to the ancestors is placed indoors

Each family and each region may do it differently.

The offering tray

When
Lập xuân day, around 4 or 5 of month 2 of the solar calendar; the notice records a time frame of 7 to 11 in the morning or 15 to 19 in the afternoon
OfferingVegetarian or notNotes
Meat and savoury dishes
A pig's head or boiled chickenMeat or fishThe traditional offering tray for the turning of the season according to the newspaper article
Xôi (steamed sticky rice) and cakes
bánh chưng (square sticky rice cake)Meat or fishOne newspaper records bánh chưng (square sticky rice cake) or bánh tét (cylindrical sticky rice cake)
Candied fruit and sweetsVegetarian
Betel leaves and areca nuts
Betel leaves and areca nutsVegetarian
Flowers
Flowers, fruitVegetarian
Tea, rice wine, water
Water or wineVegetarian
Votive paper
Vàng mã (votive paper)
Objects
An incense bowl or two candles on the incense table

Steps of the rite

  1. Make the offering outdoors first
  2. Then make the offering to the ancestors indoors

What is avoided

  • Do not argue or fall into discord
  • Do not borrow or lend, demand repayment of debts, or repay debts
  • Avoid saying unlucky things

Where the sources differ

  • Scale of the offering: the newspaper Pháp luật Việt Nam describes two trays, with pig's head or chicken, bánh chưng; Việt Báo records that many families only make a simple offering with fruit, bánh chưng or bánh tét

Communities and regions

Sources

  • Hôm nay mới thực sự là ngày Lập Xuân, khởi đầu năm mới (baophapluat.vn)
  • 4/2 là ngày Lập Xuân cần lưu ý gì, văn khấn cúng Lập Xuân 2026 (vietbao.vn)
  • Văn khấn tiết lập xuân 2024 (hoatieu.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.