This thread is to explain the meaning of festivals and ceremonies in Vietnam as they happen.
Beginning with today, July 15 on the lunar calendar, the annual ceremonial day called Lễ Vu Lan. It's one of the few major days in Buddhism to honor and show filial piety to one's parents and grandparents (living and deceased).
It's also a day to bring offerings to the poor and hungry souls (on this and other realms) and to give freedom to caught /caged animals as almsgiving to dedicate merit and karma to one's parents. (I'm keeping my goldfish however; they would be dead in the wild without daily food and clean water, releasing them would be the opposite of almsgiving)
You'll see fish and birds being released, meals being offered at Buddhist temples, and trays of food and fruits in front of individual homes. You're welcome to take your meals at temples, but don't take food from the offering in front of people's houses as those are mostly for the departed souls.
Tidbits of Vietnamese Culture
Some travel books and websites written by Vietnam "experts" explain that Lễ Vu Lan in Vietnam is the same as Ghost Festival in China.
The closest I've been to China was walking up to the China/Macau border gate to take a photo so I can't honestly say anything about Ghost Festival in that country, but based on the happenings in the Chinese community in Q5 Saigon during the last umpteen decades, I can tell you with certainty that the two are not the same although they happen on the same day.
Lễ Vu Lan is simply the day to honor one's living parents / grandparents and to pray for one's progenitors. Every activity in today ceremony has only one aim: to do good by them. Giving alms to the dead and lost souls is to help the parents and grandparents raking in karma. The ghosts are the incidentals, not the stars of the show. Thus Lễ Vu Lan is not Ghost Festival, thank you very much.
A somewhat related article from Vietnam Express in the following link next post
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