Prayer text for the year-end xóm offering, indoors and outdoors (the residential-quarter version)

Lễ cúng xóm (village communal offering). Late twelfth lunar month (year-end of the xóm); in some places offered at the start of the year

  • Southern Vietnam
  • TP. Hồ Chí Minh
  • Folk practice

Culture and belief A record of custom.

What this prayer says

Year-end communal prayer of a city block, recited at the rite of thanks to deities and holy spirits in the tất niên season; it pays homage to the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, holy monks and protectors along with Thành hoàng (village tutelary deity), Thổ địa (Earth God), Táo quân (Kitchen Gods), wandering spirits and karmic creditors, asking for blessing on the offered food and forgiveness of faults.

The prayer below is kept in Vietnamese, the language it is read aloud in during the rite.

Fill in before the rite

Your name and address appear in the prayer below and are kept on this device only.

Your regional custom

This text is the version from the South.

3 more blanks

(tức ngày {khac}, tháng {khac} năm {khac})

How it differs from the common version

How this text differs from the original: a long text composed for a whole quarter: eight opening recitation lines (including Tổ Sư Bồ Đề Đạt Ma (Patriarch Bodhidharma), Dược Sư (Medicine Buddha)), paying homage to the Buddhas and then to five deities; declaring the name, date of birth, and place of residence of each person leading the offering; there is a line "kêu thay lạy đỡ" for the community, a dedication of merit passage and the mantra "Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum"; ending with "Kính cẩn cáo!"

The common version: Prayer for the year-end xóm offering at the close of the year (a model year-end prayer text)

Other texts for Lễ cúng xóm (village communal offering)

The wording is kept exactly as published by the source. The dotted italic words are blanks for you to fill in.

Sources

  • Văn khấn tất niên xóm, tổ dân phố (hoatieu.vn)

Part of the open dataset Vietnamese offering prayers (văn cúng), licensed CC BY 4.0.

More prayer textsDeath anniversaries, Tết, the home, business, life-cycle rites and regional rites.