According to Vietnamese beliefs, the altar is a sacred place. At the end of the year, each family often performs the ritual of cleaning the altar. This is a job that requires meticulousness and carefulness.
So how to clean the altar properly to avoid violating taboos? Below are instructions from feng shui expert Nguyen Song Ha on how to properly clean (bao sai) the altar during Tet, bringing fortune to the homeowner in the year of Giap Thin 2024.
1. Things to do before cleaning the altar
Before cleaning the altar, the homeowner must light 5 incense sticks and 5 cups of water to ask for permission to clean the altar.
The first thing to do is to clean the incense bowl (if the house does not have an ancestral altar), you must wipe the sun and moon face of the incense bowl first. Wipe the incense bowl first and then wipe the other worship items. Use a soft cloth to clean, avoid scratching or fading the paint, especially with the statues on the altar.
For ancestral altars or wooden ancestral tablets, wooden lotus vases, wooden vases, wooden altars, etc., avoid using ginger wine, chemical alcohol, or high-concentration alcohol to clean because it will damage the varnish or red paint or gold plating.
For bronze statues, do not use alcohol or chemicals to clean, to avoid the bronze from oxidizing, rusting into green or quickly tarnishing.
After cleaning the dust from the altar objects, the homeowner needs to change the water in the flower vases and the offering water.
Next, the homeowner should trim the incense sticks. Do not leave the incense sticks for many years. Because too many incense sticks cause dust and are a fire hazard. After removing the incense sticks, they should be burned to ashes, dumped into the river or buried at the base of a tree in the garden. Absolutely do not throw them away.
After cleaning, light 3 incense sticks and invite ancestors and gods to gather.
2. Necessary items to cover the altar
When cleaning the altar, you must prepare a broom and a specialized altar cleaning cloth. You need to prepare a small table, on which you will place a red cloth to place the ancestral altar and ancestral tablet.
When cleaning, use warm, clean water.
Prepare five-spice water and ginger-infused wine. Five-spice water is boiled from 5 ingredients, of which dried star anise and dried cinnamon are the 2 fixed ingredients, along with 3 types of aromatic leaves depending on the season and region such as: lemongrass, basil, betel, grapefruit leaves, vang wood, fragrant pandan leaves, fragrant coriander leaves...
3. Taboos when cleaning the altar
The person cleaning the altar must be neatly dressed and clean. Before the day of cleaning, avoid sexual intercourse. The day before, avoid eating foods such as dog meat, cat meat, snake meat, turtle blood pudding, carp, snake wine, tiger bone wine, shrimp paste, etc.
When cleaning ancestral tablets or bathing statues (Buddha statues, statues of gods of wealth...), you must use warm water, not cold water.
Never wipe the ancestral tablets before the tablets of gods and Buddhas. The ancients believed that doing so was disrespectful and an offense to gods and Buddhas.
When cleaning, do not move statues, ancestral altars, ancestral tablets, and especially incense bowls. According to feng shui experts, moving incense bowls can negatively affect the connection between the living world and the underworld, making sincerity unwitnessed and causing bad luck and disaster.
In case of force majeure, the incense bowl must be moved, such as the altar is damaged by termites, cracked, etc., after cleaning, repentance must be made and the original position restored. This is called the procedure for placing the altar and incense bowl.
When cleaning the altar and the worship room, it is taboo to open the doors of the worship room wide open. Sunlight and solar light shining on the altar will damage the spiritual energy, violating Duong Quang Sat. The worship room should have dark curtains all year round, avoid outside light, use electricity inside and keep 2 red or yellow lights on 24 hours a day.
Source
![Charming Vietnam [ Cat Tien National Park ]](https://vstatic.vietnam.vn/vietnam/resource/IMAGE/2025/2/12/c05c34322e4f4cac874e7f971dfaddca)
Comment (0)