Vietnamese people from time immemorial, at the same time with the beliefs of the religion that follow, still have an ancestor worship - that is not a religion, but because of the respect and gratitude of their descendants for deceased parents, grandparents, and grandparents.
Vietnamese people have faith that death is only the dissipation of the body, and the soul remains and always returns to the family. Death is just a return to meet grandparents and ancestors. The souls of the dead always dwell on the altar to be close to their descendants, to follow them in their daily work and to help (bless them) in urgent cases. And the Vietnamese people still keep in mind: "the ceiling is so negative" - the living needs nothing, the life is the same for the dead. Because of this belief, setting up an altar to worship Ancestors is indispensable in human life.
Traditional Vietnamese houses usually have three or five rooms, in which the nave is considered the most solemn place, the center of the house. Important things such as worship, receptions, activities ... all take place here. The middle room always has a large door, open the door to see heaven and earth circulating, yin and yang harmonize and then feel the life. The altar is a place to show the respect of the descendants to Ancestors, so the altar is usually set up in the middle of the middle of the house, the homeowner must not have a bed facing the altar.
Depending on the size of the house and also on the standard of living of each homeowner, the altar has different sizes and forms.
Poor families, with simple furniture, the altar is sometimes just a bamboo flap between the two columns in the nave, inside there is a small bowl of incense. And in families of the "usually upper secondary" level or higher, the altar is properly closed. Some homeowners also use the cabinet surface as an altar or close the attic to the wall. No matter how the altar is designed, it is important that it is always in a solemn position, with the appropriate height so that when worshiping people can show their respect for their ancestors.
On the altar, there can be an examination, the throne or an altar which is decorated with elaborately and carefully painted. Before the tablet you have a very high judgment. On this project, in the middle is a bowl of incense to plug incense when worshiping. Incense sticks are well cared for, thoughtful, and not moved. Behind the incense bowl is a small stool, on which there are three radio stations with a lid and a lid with knobs. These three stations hold three small cups of wine at the ceremony. Every day, the radio is covered to avoid dust, only opened during the holidays, the full moon day, the first day. On either side of the incense bowl were two lamps (two oil lamps) or two candles (today in urban areas, two electric lamps are lit). Near the two sides of the incense bowl, in addition to the two lamps there are sometimes flamingos flanking either side. At the edge of the two lights near the two ends of the incense burner are two incense sticks used to hold incense.
In addition to the above-mentioned altars, there is also a jar of jars or twin jars displayed on the altar for flower arrangement during the death anniversary and New Year. The sign hung high horizontally across the front of the altar, on which there are huge Chinese characters, many houses use Nom (usually three, four letters) as the horizontal. There are opposite sentences on either side of the column or on the walls of the house:
“The father of the millennium virtues
The filial piety of the great and the great glory ”
Or:
"Blessed are rich and prosperous
Loc Tien honored Hoa Hung Ton Hung Hoa ”
The words written on the diaphragm, the couplets are showing the respect of the descendants to Ancestors or to praise the merits of Ancestors. The rich, the rich, the diaphragm, the couplets are made of wood painted with gold or black lacquer, or nacre mosaic, while the poor are extraordinary. Large letters, a pair of scrolls or pink sheets with opposing words written.
In modern life today, the rural housing architecture is less changed, so the traditional style of the altar still works, but the houses with modern architecture, modern furniture in the city, the way father The decoration and the altar also have many changes to suit the overall scene of the house (the elaborate incense, the diaphragm, the couplet no longer suit the interior of many families).
The altar is a sacred place so people do not leave trifles, everyday objects in daily life on the altar, but they must always keep the altar and the altar clean, solemn. And in any situation, no matter how many people are in need, they do not pledge or sell worship.
Before every incident in the family (such as: setting up a wife and husband for their children; children and grandchildren preparing to take the exam; building a new home; doing business; a wife giving birth to a child; establishing a career; having a sick family member sick, some people are preparing to go away, to work big ...), homeowners all pray to their ancestors, first to present the event, later to ask for their blessings.
Each sacrifice, depending on the poor, rich and depending on the ceremony, the offerings may include: wine, fruit, yellow incense, sticky rice, oan, salty mackerel, sometimes with votive ... and indispensable indispensable for a cup of pure water (rain water) because it represents spiritual purity before the ancestors, the gods. In necessary cases, an offering may require only one cup of rain water, and an incense stick for lighting up the altar will be sufficient. The altar during the ceremony must have a light or a candle. Incense on the altar is always lit in odd numbers (one or three compressed ...) and the incense sticks must be neatly placed. When the incense sticks in the incense bowl are full, the householder burns the incense to ask the Ancestors to uproot the incense sticks, turn them into ash and then dump them into the lake.
Ancestor altar is a meeting point of good traditions of the family, evoking a spiritual depth of "tree with root, source water", showing the cultural life to cultivate the root to grow beautiful flowers, then Sweet fruit, and from there will shed light on the cultural value for the children to step into the future
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