Lễ mát nhà and trấn trạch (rites to cleanse and guard the house)

What is Lễ mát nhà and trấn trạch (rites to cleanse and guard the house), and when is it held?

Lễ mát nhà is a rite in which a ritual master is called to send malign spirits away from the house; Bùi Xuân Mỹ (2001) records it under funeral customs, next to the daily rice offerings after the burial^[1]. He notes that in the past even the poorest family that could not hold the rite at home went to a shrine to ask a ritual master for talismans to paste up at home^[1].

The trấn trạch rite is held when people believe the house has been disturbed^[2].

What to prepare

Offerings and trays

Step by step

1. Invite a ritual master or exorcist to set up an altar^[1].
2. Make offerings to send off malign spirits and throw rice and salt to see them out^[1].
3. Request trấn trạch talismans and paste them on the gate, the house and the bedroom doors^[1].
4. For the trấn trạch rite, the anthology compiled by Song Mai and Quỳnh Trang (2006) says the householder turns the house to a new direction and then holds the rite^[2].

Why it is done this way

Bùi Xuân Mỹ notes that the trấn trạch talismans on the gate, house and bedroom doors are meant to keep evil spirits out^[1]. According to the 2006 anthology, people of old believed that poor health in the family or bad business could come from a disturbed house: the house or gate facing a direction unsuited to the householder's age, a road running straight at the main room, or the ground beneath the house being dug up^[2]. Sometimes the kitchen was thought disturbed because the dwelling of Táo quân (the Kitchen Gods) had not been kept clean^[2].