Ancestral altar - national culture

Since ancient times, along with the religious beliefs they follow, the Vietnamese still have a belief in ancestor worship - it is not a religion, but is due to the respect and gratitude of descendants towards their deceased parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents.

The Vietnamese believe that death is only the dissolution of the body, but the soul remains and always returns to the family. Death is nothing more than a return to meet grandparents and ancestors. The spirit of the deceased always resides on the altar to be close to their descendants, follow them in their daily work and help (bless) them in necessary cases. And the Vietnamese also believe that "the living are like the dead" - what the living need, how they live, the dead are the same. Because of this belief, setting up an altar to worship ancestors is indispensable in human life.

The traditional Vietnamese house usually has three or five rooms, in which the middle room is considered the most solemn place, the center of the house. Important things such as worship, receiving guests, daily activities... all take place in this room. The middle room always has a large entrance and exit door, opening the door you can see the flow of heaven and earth, the harmony of yin and yang to influence the way of life. The altar is the place to show the respect of descendants to their ancestors, so the altar is usually set up in the middle of the house, the homeowner is not allowed to place the bed opposite the altar.

On the altar there may be a shrine, a throne or a memorial tablet that is elaborately carved and carefully painted. In front of the memorial tablet there is a very high incense table. On this altar, in the middle is an incense bowl for burning incense during worship. The incense bowl is taken care of very carefully, thoughtfully, and must not be moved. Behind the incense bowl is a small table, on the table there are three covered platforms and on the top of the platform there is a knob. These three platforms hold three small cups of wine during worship. Every day, the platform is covered to avoid dust, only opened on holidays, full moon days, and new moon days. On both sides of the incense bowl are two lamps (two oil lamps) or two candles (nowadays in urban areas, people light two electric lamps). Near the two sides of the incense bowl, in addition to the two lamps, there are sometimes two cranes on both sides. On the outside of the two lamps, near the two ends of the incense table are two incense tubes used to hold incense.

In addition to the above worship items, there is also a vase or a pair of vases placed on the altar to hold flowers during death anniversaries and Tet. A high horizontal board hanging on the front edge of the altar has large Chinese characters, many families use Nom characters (usually three or four characters) as horizontal boards. On both sides of the pillars or on both sides of the house walls are parallel sentences such as:

"The ancestors' virtue will last for thousands of years."

"Kindness and filial piety bring glory to all generations"

Or:

"Blessed with wealth and prosperity,

"Prosperity and glory bring prosperity to descendants"

The words written on horizontal lacquered boards and parallel sentences are to show the respect of descendants to their ancestors or to record the merits of their ancestors. In wealthy families, horizontal lacquered boards and parallel sentences are made of wood, gilded with gold or black lacquer and inlaid with mother-of-pearl, while in poor families, horizontal lacquered boards are usually made of bamboo strips, pasted on red paper with large letters, pairs of parallel sentences or pink paper with parallel sentences.

In today's modern life, the architecture of rural houses has changed little, so the traditional altar style is still effective. However, in houses with modern architecture and modern interiors in the city, the layout and worship objects have also changed a lot to suit the overall view of the house (the elaborate incense table, horizontal lacquered boards, and parallel sentences are no longer suitable for the interior of many families).

The altar is a sacred place, so people do not put small things or daily necessities on the altar. They must always keep the altar and worship items clean and solemn. And in any situation, no matter how poor people are, they do not pawn or sell worship items.

Before every event that happens in the family (such as: getting married for children; children preparing to take exams; building a new house; starting a business; wife giving birth; achieving success; someone in the family getting sick, someone preparing to go far away, doing important work...), the homeowner prays to the ancestors, first to present the event, then to ask for protection.

Each time of worship, depending on the poor or rich householder and the ceremony, the offerings may include: wine, fruit, gold and incense, sticky rice, sweet soup, cakes, savory dishes, sometimes even votive offerings... and a cup of pure water (rainwater) is indispensable because rainwater represents spiritual purity before ancestors and gods. In necessary cases, the offerings may only need a cup of rainwater and an incense stick lit on the altar. When performing the ceremony, the altar must have a lamp or candle lit. Incense on the altar is always lit in odd numbers (one or three sticks...) and the incense sticks must be placed neatly. When the incense sticks in the incense bowl are full, the homeowner burns incense and asks the ancestors for permission to pull out the incense sticks, burn them to ashes, and then pour them into the pond.

The Ancestral Altar is the gathering place of good family traditions,evokes a spiritual depth "trees have roots, water has a source",expressing a cultural lifestyle that knows how to cultivate the roots so that the tree will bloom beautifully and then bear sweet fruit,and from there will shine cultural values ​​to guide children into the future.hybrid

According to Vitinfo