Lễ tạ đất (thanksgiving rite to the land)

Used across Vietnam, Folk practice

When

The twelfth lunar month, after the fifteenth and before Tết; many households hold it together with the rite to send off Ông Táo on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month or with the tất niên (year-end) rite. In some places land is also offered to at the beginning of the year (the 1st or 2nd day of Tết or the beginning of spring)

Where the offerings are set

Outdoors, in the yard or an empty plot in front of the house; households without a yard hold the offering indoors. phatgiao.org.vn describes how it is done at the altar in the house

Who makes the offering

head of the household

Offerings

Steps

1. Clean the altar or the place where the offering is set, arrange the offerings
2. Light incense, bow three times
3. Read the prayer text (invoke the deities first, then the ancestors if two texts are recited)
4. Bow three times, wait for the incense to burn out, then burn votive paper

Northern Vietnam, Folk practice

Offerings

Central Vietnam, Folk practice

Offerings

Huế, Huế, Folk practice

When

The second lunar month, choosing a good day; many households make an additional offering in the eighth month. Some villages around phá Tam Giang hold the offering only in the eighth month, after the harvest

Where the offerings are set

Set out in the yard; for a full rite, three trays Thượng, Trung, Hạ, some households reduce to two trays or arrange everything on one tray

Who makes the offering

The head of the household; parents make the offering at the ancestral home for all the children who have moved out

Offerings

Steps

1. Choosing a good day in the month
2. Arranging the offering tables
3. The head of the household offers incense and prays to the earth deities, the former occupants and the wandering spirits
4. The whole family, relatives and neighbours eat the offering feast together

Where the sources differ

• Month of the offering: huengaynay.vn notes that Hue people make the land offering in the second lunar month, and many households also make it in the eighth month (the second month to pray for a favourable new year, the eighth month to give thanks to the earth deity); thanhnien.vn (quoting a book by Phi Tân) recounts that in the author's countryside only the eighth month was observed, "đất kinh kỳ mới cúng tháng Hai"

South Central Coast, Quảng Nam, Đà Nẵng, Folk practice

When

At the year-end of the lunar calendar and after the start of spring (tiết lập xuân); held at private homes, clan ancestral houses, hamlets, villages, urban quarters

Who makes the offering

The head of the household; in the hamlet or village, the chief officiant

Offerings

Steps

1. Arranging the offering tray
2. Reading the prayer text to invite the Thành hoàng of the place, Thổ địa, Thái tuế, Hành khiển, the earth deities, then inviting the spirits of the former occupants, bà Chủ Ngung Man Nương and the tiền hiền and hậu hiền of the clans
3. In new urban quarters, the rite is followed by a year-end gathering meal of the residents

Southern Vietnam, Folk practice

Offerings