Artful vegetarian trays bloom, prices stable
On August 23, surveys at traditional markets such as Pham Van Hai market, Cay Go market and many retail chains showed that the purchasing power of vegetarian food and fruits serving Vu Lan festival slightly increased. This year's market witnessed the rise of artistic vegetarian feasts displayed on-site.
At Pham Van Hai market, in the popular segment, pre-ordered vegetarian feasts range from 380,000 - 600,000 VND/basic tray, types with many dishes upon request are priced over 1 million VND. Many establishments also offer preferential combos such as giving green bean and pennywort cakes or purely vegetarian flour cakes for orders from 500,000 - 900,000 VND; even there are light offering trays of 7 dishes for only 160,000 VND.
At the same time, fresh flowers, fruits and vegetarian cakes offered as offerings increased slightly. At Cay Go market, dragon fruit is priced at 40,000 VND/kg, mango 50,000 VND/kg, green-skinned grapefruit 50,000 - 70,000 VND/fruit, grapefruit 80,000 VND/kg. Yellow chrysanthemums are priced from 6,000 VND/flower, roses from 7,000 - 10,000 VND/flower. Artistic-shaped buns (gray peach sets, five-color flower sets) are priced from 55,000 - 79,000 VND/set. Although purchasing power increased by 30% - 40%, many small traders proactively maintained stable prices and added sweet soup and five-color sticky rice with a strong Southern flavor to serve people's tastes.
At Thiec market (the capital for selling votive paper in Ho Chi Minh City), the purchasing power of votive paper in the Vu Lan 2026 season has decreased significantly. Instead of bulky paper items, consumers focus on choosing simple but symbolic offerings. Among them, artisanal betel and areca sets attract a large number of young customers thanks to their elegant and solemn design, small ones priced at 15,000 - 40,000 VND, medium ones 50,000 VND, and large clusters elaborately shaped at a price of about 100,000 VND.
Many offering shops said that they have proactively not imported bulky votive paper but completely switched to artistic betel and areca designs, or compact offering sets to meet the sophisticated consumption trend of consumers.
Trend of convenient and civilized vegetarian worship
From a sociological perspective, the change in the preparation of feasts and offerings on Vu Lan day reflects the natural transformation of spiritual life in modern urban areas.
According to sociologist Nguyen Duy Hai (Deputy Head of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities cum Head of the Department of Sociology - Van Hien University HCMC), the rapid pace of industrial life and narrowed living space in major cities like HCMC make preparing a complex offering tray or burning a lot of votive paper inconvenient, even causing risks of fire and explosion safety and environmental pollution.
People switching to using online vegetarian feast ordering services, choosing compact offering trays or artistic betel and areca sets does not reduce the sacredness of the ritual. On the contrary, this shows the flexible adaptation of traditional culture: simplifying in form but improving aesthetic quality and spiritual value.
The core of Vu Lan festival from ancient times to the present is still filial piety, towards ancestors and parents. The fact that people switch to using simple offering trays and betel and areca sets delivered to homes is actually an inevitable adaptation to the development of modern services and tastes. The difference, if any, lies only in the external form of expression to suit the times, while the "heart" of filial piety inside is still intact as before" - Mr. Nguyen Duy Hai assessed.
The "rise" of civilized vegetarian worship and limiting votive paper also shows maturity in community awareness, especially the younger generation. The concept of filial piety is now practiced with simplicity, peace, towards a civilized and modern lifestyle.
