Offering tray for the full moon day of July

Offering tray for "pardoning the dead". Photo: Illustration

1. Vu Lan season passes through the alley with the fragrant scent of ripe fruit on the tree. Quang people are busy cleaning the altar and setting up the full moon offering tray. Perhaps due to the influence of Buddhism, Quang people often consider the full moon of July as the Vu Lan season to show gratitude to ancestors, so it is often held at pagodas.

Each family prepares a vegetarian meal and a tray of five fruits to worship Buddha and ancestors, instead of offering meat dishes like some regions in the North.

In the past, the offering tray for the full moon of the seventh lunar month had a rustic flavor. Rural mothers always kept the formula: in addition to white rice, the offering tray must have one soup, one stew, one stir-fried dish, one boiled dish… Of course, the familiar sticky rice and sweet soup dish cannot be absent from the offering tray on the full moon and the first day of each month.

In July, autumn, there are often afternoon rains that cool the vegetable beds and squash vines in the home garden. Country mothers pick them and cook them into pure vegetarian dishes to offer to their ancestors.

A bowl of sweet squash soup cooked with straw mushrooms. Long beans, snow peas or water lily flowers stir-fried with golden fried tofu. A pot of young jackfruit stewed in soy sauce imbued with the scent of Zen, a plate of boiled sweet potato leaves green with the color of grass… Just that much, but the vegetarian trays for ancestors during Vu Lan season in the old days created a culinary feature imbued with the scent of the countryside.

Nowadays, life is much different from the past, so the offerings for the full moon of the seventh lunar month are no longer as simple as before. Vegetarian dishes cooked with imported ingredients or industrially processed have become richer, more attractive and much more luxurious.

Even if the homeowner is too busy to cook, they just need to call and the restaurant will deliver to their home with instructions for worship.

Knowing that it is convenient, saving time in the kitchen... but still regretting the time when I gathered with my grandmother and mother in the small kitchen, cooking, preparing and offering my grandparents a pure vegetarian meal!

2. Many people mistakenly think that Vu Lan worship is also the day of pardoning the dead. Because both have the main festival on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month, but the meaning of these two festivals is completely different.

Many regions in the North focus on the ceremony of offering alms to the deceased on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, while in the South, this is considered Vu Lan day to show gratitude to parents.

I don't know if it's because they are at two ends of the country, but in Quang Nam, on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month, in addition to the vegetarian offerings on the Buddha and ancestral altars, there will be a separate offering tray outside to worship the deceased in the yard.

There are many legends about the day of “pardoning the dead”, “ghost month”, so the offering tray is also very special. People often cook very thin white porridge (flower porridge) and put it in a large bowl, inserting a few spoons in the middle of the offering tray. Meanwhile, in some regions of the North, people often scoop the porridge and spread it on banyan leaves so that the spirits can easily enjoy the blessings.

In addition, the offering tray cannot lack cassava, candy, popcorn, rice, salt and votive paper. These are practical things, available in large quantities to easily provide for many unfortunate souls.

After the offering, all the offerings were scattered at the crossroads. According to the naive thinking of the ancients, the crossroads were places where many people passed by, so there would certainly be many wandering souls…

Sometimes, the sweets and offerings to wandering souls become meals for the poor and homeless. Many people who later became famous recounted their poor childhoods when they were hungry and used offerings to get through their meals…

The custom of worshipping the dead on the full moon day of the seventh lunar month has always been respected by the people of Quang as a part of their spiritual life. It can be seen as a custom imbued with humanity, solidarity and the meaning of a folk festival with national identity.

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/mam-cung-ram-thang-bay-3139705.html