4 - Feasting with the Living and the Dead: Food and Eating in Ancestor Worship Rituals in Hội An

Summary

Ancestor worship ceremonies [đám giỗ] are the most commonly celebrated rituals in the central Vietnamese town of Hội An. As every person has two parents and four grandparents (in some cases even more as, prior to 1975, polygamy was legal and I have met several such polygamous families in town), most Hoianese conduct several such rituals annually. Obviously, many Hoianese have living parents and grandparents, but then they would participate in their elders’ ceremonies. And since extended-family members, friends and neighbours are routinely invited to join ancestor worship rituals, most people participate in well over a dozen such events yearly. Moreover, as most other Hoianese rituals and festivals include some measure of ancestor worship, it would be safe to claim that worship of ancestors is the most commonly practised ritual in Hội An. Thus, one of my informants clearly stated: “…they say that we are Buddhists or Taoists but for me, I think that we are ancestor worshippers. This is what we mostly do….”

Hoianese ancestor worship rituals are usually large and expensive affairs, with the number of participants ranging from a few dozen to over 200 and their expenses reaching no less than 15,000 đổng (about US$1) per guest in year 2000, and often thrice as much. 3 Multiplied by several such rituals per year, one realizes the huge efforts invested in ancestor worship in terms of work, time and money.

At this point, however, it is extremely important to stress that most of the money and efforts are invested in preparing the food, while most of the time is spent cooking and consuming it, facts that indicate the huge importance of the food in these gatherings. Indeed, the guests are invited to ăn đám giỗ (“eat [the] ancestor worship ceremony”), emphasizing the overwhelming importance of eating in these events.

Yet despite the obvious centrality and importance of food and eating in these rituals, researchers of Vietnamese culture have, by and large, neglected the culinary facets of ancestor worship or, at best, treated them as anecdotal and trivial.