GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR CELEBRATION

Ceremony During Funerals.VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.

Relatives follow Buddhism (or worship grandparents) often organize many funerals. In the previous topics, we have looked at the incubation ceremony, the ceremony of the mandarin, the ceremony of lowering the grave ... However, after the burial is complete, the following ceremonies are also held:

Sacrifice Ceremony (Ma Opening Ceremony)

+  This custom is not uniform, some are calculated three days after the death, some are counted three days after the burial. In fact, in the canon, there is no 'three-day ceremony', but only the 'stupid sacrifice' consisting of 'a fool' - when taking the spirit home after being buried; 're-stupid' - after the day of 'foolishness' when meeting 'good day' (i.e., land, century, new, precious) and 'ceremony of three stupid' (after burying the day of rejection - i.e. Nowadays, people simplify, concurrently all three ceremonies, only do three stupid ceremonies, so it should be called a three-day ceremony or a code-opening ceremony. Since in many cases the body is left in the cold room four or five days after death, the funeral can only be performed several days after death.  ** On that day, descendants repaired the code, covered the grass, set the drainage ditches ... lit incense, burned votive paper ... The offerings had to have a small bamboo ladder with seven or nine steps (according to 'male furniture, Nuu ') ... People celebrate this ceremony due to the following notions:

+ A person is living in peace, suddenly all activities are suspended.

+ Seeing relatives, when entering the mandarin, suddenly no more meeting again.

+ Being in the world today, the body is dead, the soul is wandering away from the body, the yin and yang completely separate. After the ceremony to divide, stupid, re-stupid, tam stupid is the sacrifice to make peace of mind.

Offering Ceremony

+  For Vietnamese families, meal is the warmest and happiest moment. If someone in the house comes home late, everyone will try to wait for a while to have fun. Now, suddenly there are people who go far away and never return. The ritual of worshiping rice formed from there. Before the meal, relatives present to the altar an upside-down bowl of rice, a few normal dishes, offering something at home. After burning incense, people use chopsticks in the middle of the rice bowl, pour wine, pray, pour water ... According to Buddhist theory: the dead soul must go through seven judgments, each seven days pass one electricity in the negative company, the soul is supernatural. The ritual of worshiping is to worship on weekdays, from the date of death: 7 days, 21 days, 49 days, 100 days ... To do the communal house (49 days) and to cry (100 days) do not need to choose a date. , just do it on the specified date in the ceremony.

+  No one can choose the date of death, so from the past up to now, every year until the date of death, the death anniversary is made, even though there are five very bad days. Do the children in the distance remember the day of the ceremony, when they come to see the cold smoke, they leave? The funeral is a set day, friends and friends who are attached, come to visit, not wait for an invitation like a celebration.

Deduction Ceremony (Dam Te)

+  After the funeral two years, people chose a good day to do except for holidays. Dedication consists of 3 ceremonies:

1. Grave Repair Ceremony.

2. Sacrifice Ceremony: To save mourning cloths, destroy (burn) things belonging to the funeral, bring the spirit to the main altar, remove the funeral altar, collect the canvas, the visitation sentence ...

3. The ceremony of welcoming the spirit to the main hall and announcing the ancestors: Take the new spirit ready, when the ceremony is over, burn the old spirit. Then the spirit, bowl of incense and portrait are brought to the main altar, placed in the lower row.

Which ceremony is important ?

+  Commemoration Ceremony: Customs in all places are unanimous in taking the death anniversary of the main parent (the parent of the oldest person in the house).

+  Funeral: The customs of each place is different. Some places focus on the 49-day ceremony, others consider the 100-day ceremony to be the main one, some places the 3-day ceremony to finish well. It is possible that during the time when the funeral family is confused, the revenge against the inherent relatives and the people who come to the funeral have many defects, so they take the 3-day ceremony as a solemn ceremony. It is seen as a mourning occasion to give thanks to those who take care of their parents when they are sick and help their family finish the funeral. Some places respect the first death anniversary ('Small wall'), some places respect the second anniversary ('Great wall').END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).GOLDEN AMITABHA MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.8/9/2020.