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The seventh month is an important festival where Vietnamese families prepare offering trays to show respect and filial piety to their ancestors as well as to offer to the wandering souls, those without a place to stay. The offering tray usually includes salted dishes along with gold, gold coins prepared in abundance to send down to the deceased.
What does the offering for the seventh month festival include?
What to prepare for offering gold in the seventh month will depend on the offering tray. For the offering tray for deities and ancestors, the preparation will be different from the offering tray for sentient beings. You need to pay attention to prepare gold, offerings to be the most complete.
Types of gold offerings for deities and ancestors in the seventh month festival: In the past, when offering to wandering souls in the seventh month, families often bought offerings including gold, paper money, jewelry, hats, shoes, houses, golden cars ... Now, gold offerings have become much more diverse. However, many people think that using paper money to simulate modern items such as cars, houses, motorcycles ... makes the ritual less sacred when offering in the seventh month, burning paper money. Therefore, families only need to buy a sufficient amount of paper money, avoid buying too much causing waste, prioritize gold with superstitious value for the wandering souls.
The offering tray for the seventh month festival needs at least the following items: Tray of five fruits, fresh flowers, Money for offerings, small change, Cakes and candies, Roasted corn, boiled corn, boiled cassava, and boiled sweet potatoes, Sugarcane cut into small pieces, Twelve pieces of sugar cubes, Bowl of white porridge, tray of salted rice (each tray has 5 bowls, 5 pairs of chopsticks), Wine, clear water (each is 3 small cups), Two candles, incense. In addition, you can also prepare items such as handkerchiefs, combs, mirrors, jewelry ...
What does the offering for the seventh month festival include?
- Fruit tray, fresh flowers
- Money offerings, loose change
- Cakes and sweets
- Popcorn, boiled corn, boiled cassava, and boiled sweet potatoes
- Sugar cane cut into small pieces
- Twelve pieces of sugar cubes
- Bowl of white rice porridge, salted rice (each meal has 5 bowls, 5 pairs of chopsticks)
- Liquor, white wine (each is 3 small cups)
- Two candles, incense
In addition, you can also purchase items such as handkerchiefs, combs, mirrors, jewelry ...
- Ancestral worship tray for the 7th lunar month: According to our long-standing custom, the ancestral worship tray cannot be lacking a whole rooster and sticky rice. In addition, the offerings include wine, fruits, and a vase of fresh flowers.
- For the ancestral worship tray for the 7th lunar month: Families often prepare 1 tray of food, which can be a savory or vegetarian tray. Typically, there will be boiled chicken, red sticky rice, a soup dish, a stir-fry dish, gold-colored noodles, paper money, and gold-colored items such as houses, vehicles, clothes, shoes... to burn for the deceased to have the most complete life, according to the belief 'what is on earth is in the afterlife.'
Gold offerings for ancestral worship in the 7th lunar month
- Download link: Worshiping or not worshiping the wandering souls in the July full moon
2. Gold offerings for the July full moon with communal offerings
Communal offerings are usually made on the evening of the 14th or 15th of July, depending on the locality. The offerings are often made outdoors or in front of the main door of the house.
- The communal offering tray is usually a vegetarian tray, including: Rice, salt, thin rice porridge, clothes of various colors for the wandering souls (15-20 sets), various types of cakes, candies, popcorn, water, incense, candles, boiled corn, boiled cassava, boiled sweet potatoes...
=> If offering porridge, prepare a rice and salt tray including 5 bowls, 5 pairs of chopsticks, or 5 spoons.
- Gold coins to prepare are communal coins (ancestral coins), cash is full of real money of all denominations. Gold coins must be prepared from the 15th offering onwards.
=> When arranging the gold coins on the tray, place them in the 4 directions: East, West, South, North and place 3-5-7 incense sticks in each direction.
- After the communal offering ceremony, the rice and salt will be scattered in the yard, on the street, and the gold items will be burnt.
3. Notes when worshipping the wandering souls in the 7th lunar month
The custom of worshipping the 'wandering souls' in the July full moon was born with the purpose of preventing the spirits from disturbing, affecting life, work, and hoping that all good things will come to the spirits. However, when worshipping, you should note the following:
- Do not offer salty dishes. When offering, place the offerings in front of your house or where you do business.
- The items burned for someone should clearly state their name, use the term 'major disaster' instead of 'death' for the year.
- The time for worship and burning gold should be done before 11:30 a.m. on the 7th lunar month. It is best to choose a time that is suitable for the age of the homeowner to worship. If you do not have time to worship at that time, you should worship before 11:30 p.m. on the 15th lunar day.
- When scattering money on the offering tray, you should place it in all 4 directions and each direction should have odd numbers of incense sticks, 3, 5, or 7. At the end of the worship ceremony, you should scatter salt, rice in the yard, sugar, and then burn the gold.
- Before worshiping, if someone comes to snatch the offering items in your hand even though you have not lit incense sticks, you should let go of those offering items.
The July full moon is also a time for families and descendants to turn to their ancestors, their roots. You can learn how to clean the altar, clean the altar properly to prepare for worshiping the spirits, ancestors on the occasion of Vu Lan festival. Because the altar is a very sacred place, cleaning it properly is very necessary and requires special attention.
The January full moon, also known as Tet Nguyen Tieu, takes place on the 15th of January every year, officially marking the end of the Lunar New Year and a time for everyone to pray for a new year full of health, success, and luck for themselves and their families. To show your sincere respect to the spirits, you need to prepare an offering tray, ritual items, and prayer texts to properly worship on the January full moon according to Vietnamese tradition.
