Thanh Minh and Vietnamese customs

For generations, Tiet Thanh Minh has become a familiar custom of Vietnamese people in the beginning of the year. This day has a human meaning and imbued with cultural and spiritual values.

Details Thanh Minh is a time when most people come back to their roots and remember the deceased. So, what kind of customs do we have in Vietnamese?

1. Meaning of Qingming

Although it is not a big Tet, it is a day with great significance for all of our people. This is a common death anniversary so all children have a chance to understand and return meaning towards their roots.

In this Qing Dynasty, everyone in the family, family will gather together to discuss how the job will clean up the tombs of the deceased, what needs to be prepared to bring up. grave worship .

Thanh Minh and Vietnamese customs Picture 1

Thanh minh is the fifth period in the "Four Crosses" and was considered by the Eastern people as an annual ceremony. Thanh Minh period usually comes after spring establishment about 45 days. Literally, the stick is clear, and it is bright. When the spring break passed, the rain of spring clouds was over, the sky became clear and bright, it came to Tiet Thanh Minh.

Thanh Minh and Vietnamese customs Picture 2

The period of initiation of the Qing Dynasty in the traditional calendar falls between April 4 or April 5 until April 20 or 21 of the solar calendar will end the spring equinox period. In 2017, Thanh Minh period falls on the 4th of April (the third day). Starting from the 4th of this year, we can plan the diatoms and spring travel. In this day according to folk tradition, this is the time to remember the origin, many families organize graves, make vegetarian cakes.

In Tiet Thanh Minh is the time when the air becomes clear and purest, when the sky is clear and quite cool. Therefore, the ancestors often chose this time to cut the grass on the grave and put the soil on the grave (grave algae). Because this day the weather is getting warmer, more rain, better plants covering the grave, it can cause graves to collapse and need to cut grass, add more soil to the grave.

When going to Thanh Minh to grave, to commemorate ancestors and deceased relatives, people can go sightseeing and admire the lush green grass, so it is also called Trai Thanh. Nguyen Du has a sentence:

Thanh Minh in March period

Mass grave was the springboard algae bar

2. What to do on the day of Minghui?

On this occasion, depending on the traditional customs of each locality, each place will have a different way of worship and reunion. But often families will gather, gather together to go to the grave and conduct visits, clean up the grave for ancestors.

Thanh Minh and Vietnamese customs Picture 3

During the process of grave grave Tiet Thanh Minh, need to clear weeds, fill and tailor graves, check whether grave is broken or other animals, insects chiseled.

These actions are to avoid the case of harm is the grave, a cavalry in feng shui sound with the deceased but influences bring to the living.

In parallel with this, each family will arrange an appropriate time to be the offering of ancestors and deceased relatives to eat with the juniors.

In the process of making the anniversary, the offerings, the children and grandchildren will come with nostalgia to remember the beautiful memories of the father with respect.

At the same time, they also made offerings to the deceased to go home to eat with their children and grandchildren. Descendants remember, nostalgic good things about the father with all respect.

3. Continuity of graves in Tiet Thanh Minh

Thanh Minh and Vietnamese customs Picture 4

For all Vietnamese people, Tiet Thanh Minh is the time when children and grandchildren go to the origin and ethnicity. Although those who go to work far away, on the 3rd day of the third lunar month, they also spend some time to return to their homeland, go back to their families to go to the ancestral graves together, then reunite with the rice tray. family. The tombs are cleaned by family members, cultivating new land, which is the morality of living people to the deceased.

The main job when going to graves is to repair the graves for the ancestors to be clean. On this day, when weeding, everyone carries sickles, hoes, shovels to prune grass, cut away wild plants around the grave, cultivate the grave for tall and clean to avoid wild animals. Like snakes, rats digging nests nest in graves, touching dead souls. After the cleanup, people will display sticky rice, meat and fruits to give to the ancestors and light some incense sticks, burn votive gold or a bunch of white daisies to commemorate the deceased.

During the day Thanh Minh cemetery became more crowded and bustling than usual. Old people worry about their ancestors, and everyone in the family and children together clean up. Children also follow their parents or grandparents to go to graves, first to gradually know the tombs of the ancestors, later to practice giving them respect for ancestors through visiting graves. People around the year who work away from home often return on this occasion (perhaps one or two days earlier for a variety of reasons) to join the family and reunite with their families.

Besides graves that are carefully cared for by families, there are also derelict graves or because the children go to work too far away from their homeland to go to graves, the grave visitors will also light them a incense stick to show respect.

In addition to the above rule, Vietnamese people also have the custom of making drifting cakes, vegetarian cakes, burning incense, then the whole family gather together to enjoy the rich flavor of this cake.

Weather Thanh Minh is also when the sky started to get less cold, trees grow strongly, lots of flowers bloom, is the right time to picnic, sightseeing.