A guide to preparing New Year's Eve offerings, arranging the outdoor and indoor trays by Vietnamese custom, with safety notes and regional differences.
In the Mekong Delta, bananas are avoided on Tet because 'chuoi' sounds like 'chui', or to plunge. The five-fruit tray instead follows 'Cau Vua Du Xai'.
Giỗ thường (cát kỵ) yearly rites need no full feast like giỗ đầu or giỗ hết. Core offerings: hương đèn, trầu cau, rượu trà, a bowl of upside-down rice.
Giỗ hết đại tường marks the end of two years of mourning. It covers the offering tray, how to arrange it, and the sequence for xả tang in Vietnamese custom.
Tuần thất is seven weekly offerings over 49 days; the 49th day is chung thất; the 100th day is tốt khốc, the end of weeping. Origins and how each is done.
How is a death anniversary kept in Central Vietnam? The tiên thường and chính kỵ rites, the joint 7th-month giỗ in Quảng Nam, and Hue dishes on the tray.
What goes on a southern Vietnamese giỗ tray and how a Mekong Delta death anniversary is held: the dishes, the two days, and the portions guests take home.
Explore the Cap Sac ceremony of the San Diu people: its origins, significance, steps, and the role of the 'Hành Quang Dance' in this sacred rite of passage.
How to set out Ram thang Gieng (first full moon) offering trays at home: how many trays, vegetarian or savory dishes, order of offering, layout and taboos.
Kin Pang Then is the early-spring rite of the White Thái, led by Then masters to thank the spirits and their disciples; it is held in Mường Lay, Điện Biên.
Tet Nguyen Tieu, the first full moon of the lunar year, is greatly valued in Vietnamese culture. See why it matters and what to prepare for the offering tray.
Northern Vietnamese Tet worship runs from seeing off the Kitchen Gods on the 23rd of the 12th lunar month to welcoming ancestors and the vang ma burning rite.
The rite on the afternoon of the 30th of Tet invites ancestors home for the New Year. North, Central and South differ mainly in the feast and the fruit tray.
The Công Đồng Bắc Lệ Temple Festival in Tân Thành Commune, Lạng Sơn runs from the 18th to 20th of the 9th lunar month, with the palanquin bathing rite.
The Cho Ro live in Dong Nai's low mountains, speak a Mon-Khmer language, and hold a yearly rice spirit rite plus a forest spirit rite every three years.
Tet rites in southern Vietnam: welcoming the ancestors on the 30th, giao thừa offerings outdoors and indoors, Tết nhà on the third, farewell on the fourth.
Burning votive paper to see off ancestors after Tet usually falls between the 3rd and 10th of the first lunar month, most often the 3rd. What to prepare.