According to Professor, Dr. Tu Thi Loan - Chairwoman of the Science and Training Council, Vietnam National Institute of Culture and Arts, the year-end offering reflects the belief in ancestor worship, an opportunity for descendants to express gratitude to the previous generation for maintaining the race and family line.
In addition, people also believe that the year-end offering tray is to welcome the Kitchen Gods and ancestors home to celebrate Tet with their descendants, an occasion for the whole family to gather warmly, summarize the end of the year and welcome the New Year together, entering the new year.
Professor Tu Thi Loan said that the time for the year-end worship is quite flexible, as long as it is after the Kitchen Gods' Day: "It can be worshiped in the morning or afternoon of December 30th if it is a full year and on the 29th if it is a short year, depending on the conditions of each family.
However, most people will worship on the afternoon of the last day of the year for the convenience of reunion. After worshiping, the whole family gathers to eat a meal and waits for the New Year's Eve moment.
As society becomes more modern and developed, offerings on special occasions also become more creative and varied. Each region has its own unique dishes.
According to the professor, in general, the New Year's Eve offering tray in the North often has chicken, sticky rice, banh chung, ham, sausage, spring rolls, bamboo shoot soup, vermicelli...
Meanwhile, the New Year's Eve tray of Southern people often has banh tet, bamboo shoot soup, bitter melon soup stuffed with meat, braised pork, spring rolls, nem, shrimp and meat salad... especially prioritizing cold dishes to worship ancestors.
Like other ceremonies during the year, the year-end ceremony, although not too formal, should still be carefully prepared, both to show respect to ancestors and to welcome a year of good luck.
Besides cleaning the altar, you need to take care, decorate, and fix up the house to make it neat and tidy, avoiding breaking things.
During the worship, do not joke, laugh too loudly, swear, or call children by their names. In particular, family members should pay attention to their actions and words to be gentle.
"Everyone should wrap up the bad luck, resolve the old year's problems to welcome the new year with everything new, smooth, and prosperous. In addition, we should also avoid saying sad things that affect the general atmosphere. In short, we just need to keep ourselves in a peaceful, calm, and comfortable state of mind," the professor shared.
