Prayer text for offering to Ông Công and Ông Táo, year-end ceremony, and tạ đất (without chanting sutras)

Cúng ông Công ông Táo (Kitchen Gods' send-off, 23rd of the 12th lunar month). The 23rd of the twelfth lunar month; the offering time differs among the three regions.

  • Used across Vietnam
  • Buddhist

Culture and belief A record of custom.

What this prayer says

Prayer text for the offering to Ông Công and Ông Táo, the year-end ceremony, and the thanks-offering to the earth at the year's end, without chanting sutras, used for the whole ceremony. The disciple addresses the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and the community of noble ones for witness, invites the heavenly beings, the spirits, the ancestral spirits, and related wandering spirits to the ceremony, offers pure food, and dedicates the merit for the peace and safety of the family, office, or shop.

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

Showing the version used across Vietnam.

4 more blanks

(Tụng. Mõ, chuông)

(Chủ sám)

(Hạ lễ)

How it differs from the common version

This version differs from the original: it does not name Táo quân; it offers jointly to "chư Thiên, chư Thần Linh" who protected the household during the year; one text is used for three year-end ceremonies (Ông Công and Ông Táo, year-end ceremony, tạ đất); there are no xiêm hài áo mũ or carp.

The common version: Prayer text for the offering to Ông Công and Ông Táo (according to Văn khấn cổ truyền Việt Nam)

Offerings and how the rite is done

Offerings, steps and things to avoid for Cúng ông Công ông Táo (Kitchen Gods' send-off, 23rd of the 12th lunar month)

Other texts for Cúng ông Công ông Táo (Kitchen Gods' send-off, 23rd of the 12th lunar month)

More about Cúng ông Công ông Táo (Kitchen Gods' send-off, 23rd of the 12th lunar month)

Nhật Nguyệt articles on the rite, the custom and how to prepare.

Collected text. The dotted italic words are blanks for you to fill in.

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.