Thoughts of the day: Full moon of July

According to the pig calendar on my desk, today is 15^th August, it’s also the full moon of July in Lunar year. In Vietnam tradition, this full moon is the biggest one of year. Well, not the biggest Moon though, she (yes, the Moon is a she) won’t get fatter because I look at her closer at an unflattering angle, I’m talking about this special day, the one day that celebrates 2 important ceremonies in Vietnamese culture.

The first ceremony is a traditional one. First of all, you should know about the definition of ghosts in Vietnam. So in western scary movies, if a person was dead by suspicious cause such as murder, drowning after being dumped by her ex, being pirates in a cursed ship, suicide after being locked up by her own family because she looked weird and acted weirdly…, this person will come back in spirit form to haunt the people/places/objects that are significant to them. Well, Vietnamese ghosts are the same. Some people were so pissed because of their death were so unfair and unexpected, their spirit couldn’t get out of this human life, so they stay there with us, as ghosts, to wander from this to that. And they are always hungry and cold and miserable.

But most of dead people didn’t have a bizarre one when they died, so they follow the ordinary rules to leave the world of living and move to the world of death. In the new place, the King of hell/ the Big Boss of the dead will judge their capacity of being decent human based on what they did in the previous life. If they were nice, their next life will be a human or animals. If they were mean, they will continue to live in hell, get torture to pay off all the sins they made when they were alive. Some of the mean spirits become ghosts as some kinds of punishment, to wander from this to that in the dead world. And they are always hungry and cold and miserable.

In the July, when the gate of the world of death opens widely, all the spirits (good and bad) living there have a chance to come back to their far, far, far away relatives, even the ghosts have a short trip to the human life.

Any date in July before the 15^th, Vietnamese families will prepare a full vegetarian meal (with congee is a must-have food) for the spirits. This big offering is for those purpose:

1.         To bribe the human-world ghosts to stop harassing and disturb the family. “Here is your food, please do not haunt us”.

2.         To forgive the death-world ghosts for all the sins they did. The name of this ceremony is actually “Xá tội vong nhân”, that means forgiving the sinners so their spirits don’t have to suffer anymore and could reincarnate into their next lives.

3.         To give the offering for our ancestors and show them our respect.

The second ceremony is originated from Buddhism. It’s a story about piety that is quite connected to the number 2 mentioned above. It began when one of the students of Buddha, Maudgalyayana found his mother was suffering in hell. Turn out his mother was not a good person when she was alive, so the King of Hell punished her by making her become a hungry ghost. Maudgalyayana surely couldn’t stand the pain that his mother had been through, so he came to the world of death to give his mother some food. Because his mother was so hungry (she was a hungry ghost after all), she took Maudgalyayana’s food for herself and didn’t share to any “ghost” else, therefore, this food became fire.

To rescue his mother for good, Maudgalyayana asked the Buddha how to save her. Following the Buddha’s instruction, Maudgalyayana gathered a lot of monks to make a sacred ceremony for his mom and she was free from her sins. And of course, the date of this ceremony was 15th July.

From this story, the full moon of July is not just a ghosts and demons and spirits thing anymore, it’s also a day that we show our respect, gratitude to our parents.  It’s Vietnamese Mother’s and Father’s Day happen in a same time. People with Buddhism roots are going to the pagodas to pray for their parents a healthy, peaceful life (if they’re still with us) or pray that they don’t have to suffer in hell and will reincarnate soon (if they was gone). This is our honor way to show our parents how grateful we are for all the good things they have done for us.

In my family, we celebrate both ceremonies. On 14th July, we made an offering for the ghosts. It’s a vegetarian meal with congee and we offered all the food we made, we “sprinkled” rice and salt on the pavement, my mother burned some money and clothes (literally currency from the Bank of Hell and paper clothes) for the hungry ghosts… And we visit my grandpa’s tomb as a respect gesture.

On 15th July, we made an offering for our own ancestors, for all the spirits of my great, great, great parents, uncles, aunts,… that come to us and for the Buddha. There’s no need of congee, it’s a vegetarian meal with fruits, flowers and my mother will burn a lot of money, gold, clothes for our ancestors so they could spend those in the world of death. Of course my mother will go to the pagoda to pray for her late parents and pray for the family.

After all, the full moon of July is a great event in my household. It’s not as big as Tet Holiday but it’s surely more important than any traditional ceremony else. There are a lot of cultural introduction articles or even books to tell you the meaning of this tradition, I honesty couldn’t care that much to write it better. For me, I love this day just because it is the time my mother has to come back from her farm to prepare the offering and after that, we could have a great meal together. It’s never about the ghosts, the afterlife, the food, the belief, it’s always about my family, sitting on the table, nagging and eating and complaining as the happiest family in the world.

Anyways, meat lovers all over Vietnam will become a vegetarian for one day. I guess some pigs could live another day.