tiểu luận phong tục đám ma ở việt nam

The Funeral is the way to express the spiritual and noble feelings such as honor, regret, love and thankful to the dead, and at the same time express the loyalty of close relatives with

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF TOURISM

* * *

-5A ASSIGNMENT

FUNERALS CEREMONY

A3 K17

LÊ MINH THU PHẠM TRÀ MY ĐỖ THIÊN TRÂM

TÔ HOÀI THANH

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF TOURSISM

* * *

-5A ASSIGNMENT

FUNERALS CEREMONY

A3 K17

LÊ MINH THU PHẠM TRÀ MY ĐỖ THIÊN TRÂM

TÔ HOÀI THANH

ASSIGNMENT 5A TRADITIONAL CEREMONIES AND FESTIVALS: FUNERALS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION (PHẠM TRÀ MY)

1 Rationale

2 Objectives of the study

3 Methodology

CHAPTER II BODY

1 Background information of the funeral

2 History of the funeral

3 Preparations before the event

4 Rituals and activities

5 Special characteristics

6 Some changes

7 Advice for visitors attending the event.

(1,2,5: TÔ HOÀI THANH))

(3,7: ĐỖ THIÊN TRÂM)

(4: ĐỖ THIÊN TRÂM, PHẠM TRÀ MY)

(6: LÊ MINH THU)

CHAPTER III CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

(LÊ MINH THU)

1 Conclusion

2 Recommendations

REFERENCES

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

A four-thousand-year culture with is a strength of Vietnamese tourism One of its

decisive features is traditional ceremonies and festivals

As a human being, the death is inevitable For Vietnamese, beside all amazing festivals and unforgettable ceremonies, funerals ceremony is considered a very important event That's why

we want to introduce this spiritual ceremony to the guest so that they can understand more about Vietnamese people Traditional funeral with its meaningful rituals can make us proud of our society This assignment is about the traditional funeral of Kinh ethnic in the North of Vietnam

2 Objectives of the study

Working wholeheartedly for this assignment, our group would learn more about the traditional values We have a chance to practice useful skills such as collecting and analyzing information, writing report and presentation We will gain not only knowledge but also experience It will help us to be more confident when contacting with tourists

3 Methodology

In order to do the traditional funeral assignment, we follow a procedure Firstly, we decide to focus at the North Kinh's funeral and search as much information as we can The job

is divided into small parts which are shared equally to each member Then, we analyze, summarize and filter the information: history, rituals, changes… We write down all the main

point at first and then set the selected information Working together, our group edits the raw version At the end, the final step is to practicing for the presentation We also prepare for questions that might be asked by the audience

CHAPTER II BODY

1 BACKGROUND INFORMATION

“Funeral rites represent a traditional way of life to the Vietnamese people They are based on the concept of the indestructible soul and the close relationship between members of the same blood line By assuming this responsibility, generation after generation retains the strong fabric of our society.” – Vietnamese writer Le Van Sieu

In Vietnamese, Funeral is called “Tang ma” “Tang” means the sorrow when your close relative is gone away And “Ma” is the traditional Funeral ceremonies So the Funeral

is the burying ceremony with honor with some rules of regret and funeral procession

The Funeral is hold in the house which has dead The dead body is place in the living-room for two days before burying Nowadays, the social are developed, the funerals can be organized at Funeral home, where all the procedure are operated by the professional funeral procession companies Instead of the close relatives of the dead organize the procedure themselves This is the convenient the deceased's family, they are all too confuse and sorrow

to organize the Funeral for their beloved

The Funeral is the way to express the spiritual and noble feelings such as honor, regret, love and thankful to the dead, and at the same time express the loyalty of close relatives with the dead man

We can tell that Funeral is not only the farewell event to see off the dead to the death world so that the dead will not be attached to the live world, but also the ceremony to pray for protection from dead relatives

2 HISTORY OF THE FUNERAL

History – From the ancient time, our people are influence by the Chinese rites, the funeral

should be celebrated from that framework, also had some differences All of our offerings based on "Thọ Mai Gia Lễ" (Hố Sỹ Tân-author) and "Gia Lễ Chỉ Nam" Although the

tradition ceremonies from the Lê dynasty are now obsoleted but have become deep rooted in the people’s mind, so far are still popular from the South to the North

Some legends, anecdotes

When a person died, placed an oil lamp on the top of his head, placed banana and a large knife on the dead body, in case of the dead turned to a Demon From ancient time, people said

if a black cat jump over the dead body, the dead will stand up, become a demon and chase living people Place the knife to prevent evil to disturb According to scientist, people place the knife near the dead body to absorb the yin chi from the dead Today, in addition to a knife, people burn coal under the bed, cover dead person’s face with a white handkerchief The eldest son or daughter take a shirt the deceased has worn in life and wave it in the air and call upon the soul of the dead to return to the body

When the dead body is enveloped with white cloth, the relatives have to cover the dead’s face with a white handkerchief in order not to let the dead feel sad when seeing his/her close relatives

Since the King Hung dynasty, there was a custom to divide the possession for the dead Nowadays, in the coffin, Vietnamese people still put into the coffin the dead’s stuffs as clothes, mirror, comb, etc… and in the dead anniversary every year, they burn paper clothes, gold, money, etc… for the deceased with the meaning: hope for the dead to “live” happily in the afterlife

After the burial, they put a bowl of rice, an egg and a pair of chopsticks (put on the bowl of rice), and a handful of tinder above the grave This custom means to praise: the handful of tinder represents for the world’s chaos, in the chaos, the taiji will be formed (represents by a bowl of rice), the Yin-yang will be formed from taiji (represents by a pair of chopsticks), Yin-yang represents for the live (an egg) The whole things to praise for the dead will soon be reborn

3 PREPARATIONS BEFORE THE EVENT

According to custom, when the parent has died, the children do not, as yet, accept the idea of the death They place the body on a mat on the floor in an effort to “bring it back to life” according to the saying “Being born from the earth, one must return back to the earth” The next rite in this tradition is for the eldest son or daughter to take a shirt the deceased has worn in life and to wave it in the air and call upon the soul of the dead to return the body They often say “Ba hồn bảy vía ông” or “Ba hồn chin vía bà”

Before the rituals are happened, the body is washed and dressed which symbolizes

washing off the dust of the terrestrial world; hair is combed and nails are clipped The death body is cleaned with alcohol or clean water

Each member in the family and closed neighbors will have different work to prepare One visit a temple nearby or already was chosen before to invite a monk to chant prayers, ask for good hours and day Another take care of coffin, car, trumpet team… Other confirms the burying or burning place, set up the house to welcome guests Kids are told not to play game The family also has to prepare clothing for the funeral Looking at the clothing, we can identify who is son/daughter, son/daughter in law, grandchildren, great grandchildren… During the period of mourning, descendants wears special mourning clothing The deceased person’s sons, daughters and daughters in law had to wear coarse gauze turbans and tunics, and hats made of straw or of dry banana fiber The deceased person’s grandchildren and relatives also had to wear mourning turbans Grandchildren and relatives wears white cloth around their head, great grandchildren wear yellow one

4 RITUALS AND ACTIVITIES

First of all, chopstick is laid between the teeth, and a pinch of rice and three coins are dropped in the mouth of the dead person It called “Lễ ngậm hàm” The coin is for the dead to bribe the ghosts when go through 18 gate of hell or to indicate that the deceased has left this world without want or hunger

The eldest son and the eldest son’s of the eldest son are the first one to close the eyes for the dead, whether the death’s eyes are closed

Lễ khâm liệm và nhập quan: The body is enveloped with white cloth (khâm liệm) and put

into the coffin (nhập quan) Before that, the coffin is spread out with rice, tea to absorb the

water out of the corpse Relatives who age is incompatible with the dead must stay away in the time of put the corpse into the coffin, to prevent from harm later (according to an ancient custom, the dead could capture them.)

According to the tradition, son will standing on the left, daughter on the right of the dead The corpse is put on the cloth, and is placed gently into the coffin To finish, they fold the fabric on top, bottom, left then right Following the procedure is applied paint on coffin lid bar and closed tight

Coffin is placed in the middle of the house When putting the coffin in place, head of the dead

is head to the front, also when carrying the coffin

Lễ thành phục: Finally, the funeral ceremony (lễ thành phục) is officially performed.

Buddhist family invites the monk to chant and begin the ceremony

Many family often invite trumpet team to play at funeral, called “Đội kèn giải” They

will play mourning music when rice-offering, when people come to share the sorrow with the family

Distant relatives, neighborhoods, friends or colleagues of the dead come to the house, pray for the salvation of the dead’s soul, go around the coffin to see the dead again and console the family The sons on the left side and daughters on the right side of the death’s coffin will bow back when the visitor took bow in front of the coffin If the visitor bow three times (they will come to the funeral procession (lễ đưa tang), the family bow back one Visitor bow four times (they can’t come to the funeral procession), the family bow back two If the visitor is younger then the family bow representative, a younger in family will be called to bow back Guest of which person, that person will bow back And the sons will bow back the male visitors; the daughter will do the same with the females

Lễ động quan, di quan: The date and time for the funeral procession (lễ đưa tang) is

carefully selected On this day, the coffin carriers play an important role when carrying the coffin

When the coffin is carried out of the house door, few items in the house should be break (such

as a pot) to scare the evil spirits to go out from house Relatives, friends, and descendants take part in the funeral procession to accompany the dead to the burial ground Votive papers are dropped along the way At the grave site, the coffin is buried and covered

After the funeral: After three days of mourning, the family visited the tomb (mở cửa mả),

again or worshiped the opening of the grave

After 49 days (Lễ chung thất), the family stopped bringing rice for the dead to the altar And finally, after 100 days, the family celebrated “tốt khóc”, or the end of the tears

5 SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS

The Vietnamese funeral has many special features There are good and positive things that need to be kept and develop There are also some negative changes need to avoid

In some places, family has a funeral tend to organize an intimate dinner, but it should

be restrict for their relatives and neighbors who have helped Nowadays, it’s becoming popular and being an event for a drinking party Many people argue that doing this to bring joyfulness for the deceased, also sharing the suffering with family, but in actual, it cause offensiveness and bring more troubles Also in Southern, many families invited to funeral some transgender people to help fun They sing, and usually starts late at night Neighbors will be annoyed by loud music and unsuitable songs all night long

When meeting a funeral in the street, people will take off their hat or helmet and go in slow speed to show their sympathy People in cars won’t honk

It is also shown the community characteristic in the funeral: a family has a funeral, everyone feels sad and confuse, everything can’t be fully discharged, neighbor will always

be there to help, to fulfill things This is a lofty and beautiful, good deep, to present the kindness of neighborhood

6 SOME CHANGES

Funeral is important custom in countries Nowadays, people don’t have time to hold a traditional mourning ceremony; they often follow new rituals which are shorten and simplified In the past, family’s members must dress untidily and look emaciated to show that they are orphaned when father/mother is gone In mourning ceremony, they wear winkle clothes to mourn for the death and show that they don’t want to be pretty, happy, joyful and so

on because of the death They even do not comb hair However, after being criticized, there is

no more In present, the deceased person’s family members wear a white turban or a black mourning band

In the past, the dead body must be buried Recent years, due to affection of foreign custom many people chose burning before burying to save time, money and protect environment There are almost only people live in countryside want to bury in traditional way People often are buried in the land surrounding house such as garden, backyard and field They consider that buried near family, they could “watch” descendants carefully in after world and make it convenient for descendants take care of grave afterward Most people living in cities would rather burn than bury the corpse In this way, they can bring a little of bone-ash to

nearby pagoda and home in order to worship The rest of bone-ash is put in a pot and burry instead of coffin The process of bury rite is the same but with burning corpse there is not rite

of moving corpse to another place (bốc mộ) afterward This changing is a improve thought and has many benefits for society

Funeral form is various because of different culture, location and region It expressed the respect, gratitude of living people for the dead In general, funeral is covered by mourning air of loss However, lately the air of funeral in some big cities is no different from a festival

It takes much time (a whole week while a funeral is just allowed to be held in 4 days) and money to be held and irritates neighbours and evil influences to environment Beside tradition rites in funeral, the deceased family of dead person add some “art” performances, “live show”

in process of funeral to please visitors and the dead

These performances include circus, singing, dancing with inappropriate custom and music (from classical to modern songs, cai luong…) In funerals, deceased family holds playing cards, drinking through night that offends neighbors To explain for this “new culture” of funeral, some people think that the bigger funeral the healthier family is, they want to show off and be different Because of thought, many funeral services are born especially cry service, music service, make-up for the death service

Nowadays, many family is lack knowledge of organizing right funeral but has plenty money, therefore they often buy package service for funeral from funeral organization team For positive view, this performance reduces sadness of living people and helps the dead rest in pleasure and solves employment issue for jobless people However, plenty of performances make funeral ceremony loss inherent solemn air Not only wasting money but also having bad affects to social security and environment