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Tết Trùng cửu and Tết Trùng thập

Also called: Tết Trùng dương, Tết Song thập, Mùng 9 tháng 9, Mùng 10 tháng 10, Tết thầy thuốc

  • Festivals through the year

Culture and belief A record of custom.

Prayer text for Tết Trùng cửu and Tết Trùng thập1 texts, kept in Vietnamese, with an English summary.

These two seasonal observances are now held in few places. According to domestic sources, Trùng cửu is an occasion to make offerings to ancestors and to pray for longevity for the elderly; Trùng thập is usually combined with the new-rice offering of the tenth lunar month, with the custom of bringing new rice to present to one's craft teacher and physician. No separate prayer text for Trùng cửu has been found.

At a glance

When it is held
The 9th day of the 9th lunar month (Trùng cửu) and the 10th day of the 10th lunar month (Trùng thập)
For whom
Ancestors; for Trùng thập there are also deities and Đức Thần Nông (the God of Agriculture), as with the new-rice offering
Where
Ancestor altar

Each family and each region may do it differently.

The offering tray

When
Trùng cửu: the 9th day of the 9th lunar month. Trùng thập: the 10th day of the 10th lunar month, usually combined with the new-rice offering
OfferingVegetarian or notNotes
Incense, lamps, candles
Incense, chrysanthemums, wine, cakes, fruitVegetarianSome guides note the Trùng cửu offering tray is simple
Other
New rice cooked as rice, glutinous rice, mung beans, turtledovesTrùng thập: cook rice and bring it to present to one's craft teacher and physician

Steps of the rite

  1. Trùng cửu: make offerings to ancestors, pray for health and longevity for the elderly; in some places a longevity celebration is held on this day
  2. Trùng thập: offer the new rice, pay Tết visits to one's craft teachers and physicians

Communities and regions

More about Tết Trùng cửu and Tết Trùng thập

Sources

  • Tết Trùng Cửu là gì? (fptshop.com.vn)
  • Văn khấn Lễ Trùng thập (10-10) và Tết Hạ nguyên (Lễ cơm mới) (15-10) (vankhan.vn)
  • Tại sao Tết Hàn thực lại phải ăn bánh trôi bánh chay? (tuoitre.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.