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When I compare the "modern" funerals to which they went lately, and the "traditional" funerals, there is a HUUUUGE gap! The funeral and mourning were to be divided into 5 CEREMONIES scattered on 2 to 3 YEARS! However, the more contemporary funerals became simpler as the number of ceremonies decreased according to the survivors. The rituals around this event reminded me of the ELFFs (Extremely Lavish Funeral Feasts). The more there are attendance, investment in time and money,and mourning, the more this proves how the dead were important.
CHANGE?
Bryan Hayden and Suzanne Villeneuve rapidly explain this change in "A Century of Feasting Studies" by declaring that feasts have been banned for economic and religious reasons. This is true and not true. The Vietnamese government may have banned such practice.
However, based on what I could witness (in weddings) or hear or read, there are still those big gatherings and meals.
On the one hand, Tran Thi Hao seems to suggest that the 5 ceremonies are still practiced in some regions, some cities or some families. So this will also depend on space and one's free will.
On the other hand, the notion of kinship is broader in the Vietnamese culture compared to the Western culture. How many "fake" uncles and aunts do I have? Those supposedly uncles or aunts are people my parents consider as "bosom" brothers and sisters. And I do call them "uncle" and "aunt". This notion is extendable to their children as my "cousins" or their parents as my "grandparents". This is to say how the sense of community/kinship goes far beyond biological bonds, to which I did not mention the friends and other acquaintances. So you can now imagine how many people can attend a funeral.
Plus, these are the kind of ceremonies you would never let your guests starve, because you don't want to bring dishonor either on your family nor on the dead.
Besides, I remember my mother often putting food in front of the home altar: for a common day, the anniversary of someone's death or the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. So the link between the living and the dead is still maintained regularly and on the long term.
FLAWS OF HAYDEN'S APPROACH
If Hayden mainly focus on the sociopolitical and economic aspects and benefits and on food as being limited to feasts in both "A Century of Feasting Studies" and "Funerals as Feasts : Why Are They So Important", I may contradict him with other reasons. His arguments are not comprehensive enough about the motivations around feasting and especially FOOD.
To begin, the first offering takes place when some grains of rice and coins are put in the deads' mouth. The latter will allow them to feed themselves during their trip from the world of the living to the world of the dead, and to pay boatman who will bring them to this other "new" world.
The Vietnamese believe in the ancestors' cult. I mentioned it beforehand with the altar in the house and the food offered to the ancestors as part of religious and spiritual beliefs that the dead are still among us. We try to live in harmony with them, partly because we fear that they come back to our world and/or threaten us.
But this is also for affectionate and traditional reasons. We try to take care of them; we show that we still respect them despite their "material" absence; and we feed them as we will repeatedly make offerings, and not only on special occasions.
Moreover, passing through all of these offerings have a psychological aspect as they help the living ones to mourn and process the idea of death.
However, I admit that the living ones may ask for benefits such as the protection from the ancestors against dangers from other living persons or spirits. And I would not deny there is some showing off of the dead's importance (socially, politically, economically, emotionally and I may have forgotten some others) which is supposed to be proportionate to the grandeur of the ceremony(ies).
Having such big gatherings are also an occasion to reinforce the bonds between people. And I insist! These are not only for social, political or economic aims. What about the emotional connexion? Their presence may be a proof of support, solidarity and respect for both the survivors and the dead during this painful time.
Heonik Kwon gives another reason why food is used in Vietnamese practice. The author says that a living person may offer food to a dead "as an act of charity". Indeed, I heard a few months ago why my mother would sometimes put food and burn incense in the garden. Apparently, it was to take care of the orphan spirits who had no one to commemorate their memory. So all acts related to food and death are not interested.
CONCLUSION
Thus, food and death cannot be limited to lavish feasts organized for sociopolitical and economic advantages. Even if my knowledge is restricted to my relatives' experience and the few sources I've read, I hope to bring a broader approach about the Vietnamese funerary practices, the relationship between the living and the dead, and the value of food in those rituals.
- Deuzeune, C. E. 2003. La mort et ses rites pour tous. Copenhague : le plein des sens ed.
- Hayden, B., and Villeneuve, S. 2011. A Century of Feasting Studies. Annual Review of Anthropology, 40, pp.433-449.
- Hoang, D.-H. T. 2000. Death Rituals in Vietnamese Society. EthnoMed . [online]
- Kwon, H. 2007. "The dollarization of Vietnamese ghost money". Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 13(1), pp.73-90.
- Nguyen, H. T. 1983. La vie quotidienne dans le Viet-Nam d'autrefois. Bruxelles, Belgique, Thanh-Long.
Available at : <http://books.google.ca/books?id=5g8-AAAAMAAJ&q=funeraille+vietnam+riz+bouche&dq=funeraille+vietnam+riz+bouche&hl=en&sa=X&ei=IzxvT8b3FOKTiQK1mfyxBQ&ved=0CFgQ6AEwBg> [Accessed 25 March 2012]
- Nguyen, J. H. L. 1981. La tradition religieuse, spirituelle et sociale au Vietnam : sa confrontation avec le christianisme. Paris, Beauchesne.
- Tran, T. H. 2007. Une introduction a la connaissance du Vietnam. Paris, Harmattan.
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