Vietnamese culture- beliefs and rituals of the death Vietnamese culture may be still mysterious and unknown to most people outside of the country. Nowadays, the amount of foreigners come to Vietnam is increasing day by day; some people come to travel, and some come for their business. Getting to know, Vietnamese culture is interesting and fascinating because of its varieties. Since Vietnam is an Asian country, it has a lot of differences in culture compare to the Western countries, and Vietnamese beliefs and rituals of the death is one of the most interesting topics. Death is a part of life that everyone has to accept. We all have to die. “Death and grief are normal life events, all culture have developed ways to cope with death in a respectful manner” (Carteret). Vietnam is a small country, but it has numerous traditions concerning death rites. Different parts of Vietnam have separated death beliefs and rituals. Vietnamese honor and respect their ancestors and the deceased people so they strictly pay attention to funerals and worships. To them, funeral is a big ritual in a life cycle. Every region and religion has its own definition and how the funeral should be. Funeral usually includes many processes which is made and dedicated from those who are living to the person who has died. In Vietnam, when a person is about to die and his/her family may predict, the first judgment is asking whether that person wants to weary anything; these last few words are called the will. After that, the family washes and cleans his/her body and put some nice clothes on him/her. Sometimes, when an old person is in his/her last few years of life, like my grandmother, she tells her eldest son to find a tailor and make her a white silk set of clothes, so she can wear it in her funeral. It is considered a will from the person, and everybody should respect that. Back in the old day, when the person is dead, “a chopstick is put between the teeth, and then a little bit of rice and three coins are placed in the mouth of the deceased” (Asian Death Rites). According to the tradition, the family has to remember exactly at what time does the person give his/her last breath, so when the monks come, they can tell if the deceased falls into the bad time which may result in the following of devils. If unfortunately that person dead time is bad, the monk will give a spell which is written on a paper and put it into the coffin. Usually, the family will bury the dead person in the piece of land where they used to live. This ritual shows the belief of “back to where you come from when you die”. To some of the family in the north, after two years, the family of the deceased will dig out the body remains. They will clean the bones and bury them again in the family garden (Asian Death Rites). Also, Vietnamese people will throw some fake money along with the dead person since they believe death is not the end; it is just a new journey for the soul and it needs some money and property to continue the journey. Vietnamese people believe the soul of the dead person will reincarnate into something else, maybe ghost or some kind of animals. “The premise of ancestor worship is based on understanding that the course of life is cyclical not linear. Those who are dead may not be seen physically…” (Carteret). For example, my great-grandmother and my grandfather died many years ago; sometimes we see two butterflies, one big and one small, fly into our house and land on to the photo of my great-grandmother and grandfather on the fall. My family considers this event fascinating. So we believe that they reincarnate into butterflies and visit our family. It is generally understood that ghosts are people who have undergone unnatural, premature, painful or violent deaths, and especially when people die away from home (Funeral Ceremonies). This differs from the understanding of ancestors who would have died a good death in their homes with the proper rituals in place. The souls in Vietnam are considered to need certain items in the afterlife to function, just like the living. Spirit mediums will be used by families looking for their loved ones as well as ghosts looking for their families. There is a strong desire to find missing people; so that they may have a good resting place where the family can make offerings to the deceased (Funeral Ceremonies). There is an idea that ghosts and their families cannot be in peace with the person's death until they are found and have a proper burial and grave. Over the last few years many remains of dead soldiers have been found. The bodies are then exhumed, and reburied in their home communities. Often there are formal military funerals where the soldiers are given full military honor because they are considered martyrs. General speaking, Vietnamese beliefs represent the respect and love toward the deceased people. It also shows the thoughts that bad things can happen to dead people. So as a family, we care about them until a long period of time when we feel that they are “settled down” in their new world. The death rituals and beliefs in Vietnam somehow are not discovered thoroughly. There are still some mysterious that even Vietnamese people could not explain. However, it shows that Vietnam is a country with a unique and interesting rituals and beliefs about an argumentative topic- death.

Works Cited
"Asian Death Rites." Latest Articles. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2012. <http://traditionscustoms.com/death-rites/asian-death-rites>.
Carteret, Marcia. "Cultural Aspects of Death and Dying." Dimensions of Culture RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2012. <http://www.dimensionsofculture.com/2010/11/cultural-aspects-of-death-and-dying/>.
"Funeral Ceremonies." Vietnamese Funeral Customs. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2012. <http://www.vietnam-culture.com/articles-22-3/Funeral-ceremonies.aspx>.