(Vái bốn vái)
(Vái 4 vái)
Prayer text at the clan's burial ground
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
- At the grave
Culture and belief A record of custom.
What this prayer says
Prayer text recited at the clan burial ground during Thanh minh; the descendants of the clan stand before the ancestral graves, bow to the deities, the earth gods and dragon-vein spirits, and the honoured deities governing the locality, asking for their blessing so that the graves may be undisturbed and the descendants protected.
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.
Showing the version used across Vietnam.
4 more blanks
How it differs from the common version
This text is for the whole clan and is read before the common burial ground: it refers to itself as "Tử tôn trong họ tộc", offers to the Thần linh Thổ phủ long mạch first and only then bows to the ancestors; the text records three times of bowing and four times of bowing; it ends with "phúc duy thượng hưởng".
The common version: Prayer text for the offering to spirits at the grave
Offerings and how the rite is done
Other texts for Cúng tiết Thanh minh, tảo mộ (Thanh minh observance and grave tending)
- Folk practice, Address to the ancestorsPrayer text for the Thanh minh offering at home
- 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
- 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
- Tiết Thanh minh, Văn khấn Tiết Thanh Minh (vankhan.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