Year-end worship is a ritual to close an old year, usually taking place before the moment of New Year's Eve. This is not only a ceremony to offer incense to gods and ancestors but also a year-end reunion meal for family members. In that atmosphere, children and grandchildren express gratitude, look back at the past year and send wishes for health, peace, and fortune for the new year.
According to custom, the year-end ceremony is usually held in the afternoon of the 29th or 30th day of the twelfth lunar month, after the family has completed cleaning the house and tidying up the altar. The specific time can be flexible depending on the conditions of each house, but most choose the afternoon or evening to ensure a full family of members.
This year, because there is no 30th day of Tet, families can perform year-end worship on the 28th or 29th day of the twelfth lunar month.
According to the book "Vietnamese Traditional Court Worship - Rituals and Ritual Practices", the year-end offering tray can be vegetarian, savory or both types depending on the homeowner. Usually, the feast must be prepared deliciously, in some places very elaborately, lavishly with full of dishes during Tet.
However, families need to note that the offering tray (vegetarian or savory) must have 1 full bowl of rice and 4 bowls of back rice.
The savory feast includes the following common dishes (families can arbitrarily change, add or subtract):
Northern region:
- Boiled meat/boiled chicken
- Pork knuckle stew with bamboo shoots
- Chicken heart vermicelli
- Gac sticky rice
- Banh chung
- Nem
- Vietnamese sausage
- Gio xao...
Central region:
- Banh chung
- Banh tet
- Vietnamese sausage
- Chicken with Vietnamese coriander
- Boiled pork
- Sour sprouts
- Tuna (or other fish) braised...
South:
- Banh tet
- Bitter melon stuffed meat soup
- Braised pork
- Shrimp and meat salad
- Pickled scallions with dried shrimp
- Nem
- Spring rolls...
Vegetarian feasts may include the following dishes:
Roasted vegetables
- Bitter melon soup with tofu
- Fried tofu with fresh mushrooms
- Fried glass noodles
- Gio, chay
- Gac sticky rice (or peanut sticky rice, green beans);
Vegetarian and savory feasts are all accompanied by incense, lamps, candles, fruits, clean water (can add a bottle of sticky rice wine, make good tea and pour into 3 cups), clothes, joss paper money, horses, boots...
Note that the offering tray should be arranged neatly, cleanly and fully to show sincerity. The year-end offering tray can be offered at the ancestral altar, God of Wealth altar or in the yard (if it is a land offering).
