Prayer text for the Thanh minh offering at home
Cúng tiết Thanh minh, tảo mộ (Thanh minh observance and grave tending). During Thanh minh, beginning around 4 or 5 April of the solar calendar
- Used across Vietnam
- Folk practice
- Address to the ancestors
Culture and belief A record of custom.
What this prayer says
Prayer text to the ancestors on the occasion of Thanh minh, recited at the home altar after tending the graves; it invites the ancestors, the ancestral patronesses and the spirits of the deceased in the family along with Thổ Công (Earth God of the house) and Táo quân (Kitchen Gods) to witness, offers betel, wine, incense and flowers, and asks for protection so that the whole family may be safe, prosperous and their work favourable.
The prayer below is kept in Vietnamese, the language it is read aloud in during the rite.
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Showing the version used across Vietnam.
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Offerings and how the rite is done
Other texts for Cúng tiết Thanh minh, tảo mộ (Thanh minh observance and grave tending)
- Folk practice, At the gravePrayer text when visiting and repairing graves (the version "Cung duy... Cẩn cáo")
- Folk practice, Address to the deitiesPrayer text at the shrine of the spirits of the cemetery
- Folk practice, At the gravePrayer text at the clan's burial ground
- Family rites (Confucian gia lễ), Address to the ancestorsThanh minh prayer text offering to the ancestors (in Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation, with a translation)
- Buddhist, At the gravePrayer text for the Thanh minh offering at the grave (without chanting sutras)
- Folk practice, Address to the deitiesPrayer text to deities at the grave (for tảo mộ, repairing the grave, bốc mộ)
- Folk practice, At the gravePrayer text for the offering to spirits at the grave
- Huế, làng Mỹ Lợi, Thừa Thiên HuếVăn tế Thanh minh tảo mộ làng Mỹ Lợi (Thanh minh tế văn)
More about Cúng tiết Thanh minh, tảo mộ (Thanh minh observance and grave tending)
Nhật Nguyệt articles on the rite, the custom and how to prepare.
The wording is kept exactly as published by the source. The dotted italic words are blanks for you to fill in.
Sources
- Văn khấn cúng Tết Thanh minh chuẩn nhất (phatgiao.org.vn)
- Văn khấn Tết Thanh minh 2023, bài cúng tảo mộ và tại gia (baoquocte.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.Open