Variations to ward off bad luck at the beginning of the year

(Baonghean) -Going to the pagoda at the beginning of the year has been a beautiful spiritual tradition of the Vietnamese people for thousands of years. In addition to praying for good luck, many families also hold a ceremony to pray for a peaceful new year. However, besides that humanistic meaning, there are many things that have been distorted, leading to waste, expense and superstition.

In Vinh City and surrounding areas, there are large pagodas and temples such as Can Linh Pagoda (Cua Nam Ward), An Hau Pagoda (Nghi Duc - Nghi Loc), Ong Temple (Hong Son Ward), Ong Hoang Muoi Temple (Hung Thinh - Hung Nguyen). These places are often where people send their wishes for good luck and to remove bad luck for themselves and their families throughout the year. Most of the star worshiping and bad luck removal takes place on the 4th and 6th of Tet and especially on the 8th. In addition, many places also worship stars and bad luck removal on the 12th, 14th, 15th, 16th... of January.

One day before the full moon of January, we arrived at An Hau pagoda (Nghi Duc commune, Vinh city). Although it was already afternoon, there were still quite a few people waiting at the reception area to register for the ceremony to pray for peace for the whole year and to offer stars to ward off bad luck. Ms. Nguyen Thi Xuan (Hung Phuc - Vinh city) registered for her whole family to hold the ceremony on Saturday (January 14) and said: Every year, her family registers to hold the ceremony at the pagoda, praying for peace for a peaceful year, the cost of her family's star offering ceremony is up to her. Therefore, she sent the pagoda 20,000 VND for each family member, and 100,000 VND for the whole family of 5. The procedure for praying for peace and ward off bad luck at the pagoda is quite simple. After registering and paying the fee, at the scheduled time of the above days, those who are affected by a star will come to listen to the pagoda read the sutras, read their name, receive the petition and burn votive paper to complete. At Can Linh Temple, the fee for the peace-praying ceremony is higher, 100,000 VND per person. For those who have bad stars this year, they will have to pay an additional 50,000 VND for the offerings and the effigies. Ms. Le Ngoc Lan (Cua Nam) said: "Every year I go to the temple to pray for good luck for my children and grandchildren. Every year I represent my family to pray, just hoping for a year of good luck in business and good health for the whole family." At these temples, the prayer for good luck is done quite seriously and methodically, so there is no soliciting or inviting that would spoil the solemnity.

New Year's Eve ritual at Ong Temple (Hong Son), Vinh City.

At Ong Temple (Hong Son Ward), the time after Tet is always a "busy" time for the team writing petitions, registering to remove bad luck, and praying for peace. There is always a team of greeters standing in front of the temple door. As soon as we entered, two women with bags on their hips ran out and begged us: "Uncle, why are you going to remove bad luck, come here and I will do it for you!". In front of the temple gate, there are about 5 or 6 temporary rooms, known as places for "masters" to stay to write petitions, perform ceremonies and related matters. My friend who went with me expressed his intention not to remove bad luck but only wanted to move the incense sticks from the family altar to the house. The master named Nh. said it would cost 400,000 VND, and the ceremony would be performed on the spot. The price for removing bad luck in this area is also quite diverse, in the style of "looking at the face to name", seeing the rich people, the price is high and vice versa. Mr. Hoang Van Tung (Le Mao - Vinh City) is 40 years old this year, and is recording the stars corresponding to each family member in the year of Quy Ty. This year he has the Thai Bach star, so the first thing he does after the ceremony is to register for the star resolution, pray for peace for him and his family members, pray for a peaceful new year, and avoid bad luck. To avoid that "bad luck", Mr. Tung spent 1.5 million VND in fees and many other offerings.

Many families with good economic conditions do not go to temples or pagodas but organize the ceremony to dispel bad luck at home. "From now until the end of January, pagodas are overloaded with star offering ceremonies to dispel bad luck, so my family invited a shaman to our home, so we are not afraid of misreading or missing names, and doing it carefully, we feel more secure", said Ms. Hoang Thi Van in Quan Hanh (Nghi Loc). "The fee for each family is 200,000 VND if we do the ceremony at the pagodas, but if we do it at the shrine, it is much higher. My whole family of 5 people doing the star offering ceremony to dispel bad luck also spent a few million VND", said Ms. Dang Thi Ngoc (Trung Do) after performing the star offering ceremony to dispel bad luck at the beginning of the year at a shrine in Trung Do (Vinh City). Like Ms. Van and Ms. Ngoc, this year Ms. Phuong's family in Hung Chinh (Hung Nguyen) decided to perform the star offering ceremony to dispel bad luck at home. She said that to prepare enough offerings according to the "shaman's" instructions also cost millions of VND. “Farmers should spend millions of dong on this crop, which is already a lot of money. It's a pity, but whatever. As long as the whole family is healthy and safe, no amount of money can compare,” Ms. Phuong clicked her tongue.

To add more trust and reduce anxiety, many homeowners seek out shamans who still set up an altar at home. However, to rely on shamans to help with bad luck, one needs to have a relatively stable economy. The total cost for this kind of bad luck removal ceremony is about 3 - 3.5 million VND including the ceremony. After that, usually if the shaman is enthusiastic, the homeowner will give the shaman an additional 500,000 to 1 million VND. In some cases, in addition to the star removal, the shamans also have predictions that make the homeowner panic, running around to find money according to the shaman's request. The shaman also says that the homeowner must knock down the door on this side, move the gate on the other side, change the direction of the altar to have "luck"... Many people with good economic conditions still ask 2 shamans to be sure. Therefore, the cost for the procedure to remove bad luck at the beginning of the year for some houses is up to tens of millions of VND.

However, Venerable Thich Minh Tri, abbot of An Hau pagoda, advised people not to spend money on ceremonies. Because Buddha is in the heart, people have the heart, Buddha is always present. Actively doing good deeds will be rewarded with good, conversely, evil deeds will be rewarded with evil. There is no such thing as a bad or good star shining on a person's destiny.

In fact, when asked about the ceremony to offer sacrifices to the stars to ward off bad luck, many people think that it is only to solve psychological problems. If you have bad thoughts and behaviors, no matter how much effort and money you spend, you cannot cut off bad stars or ward off bad luck. When going to the temple, the most important thing is sincerity, so do not over-emphasize spiritual ceremonies and worship too much, set up complicated rituals, hire a shaman to worship, which is a waste of money.

Article and photos: Tran Hai