Religion, the state, and the Vietnamese

lunar new year

I am grateful to the
following who have assisted
me at various times with
my research on Tet Nguyen
Dan: L Hong Anh Th ,
Nguyn Hunh Thanh Bnh
and Phan Th Thanh Thy.
I am especially grateful to
Bi Th Dim Trinh and L
Th Cm T for assistance
with the translation of
Vietnamese news reports.
I am also very grateful to
Hoa Sen University, Ho Chi
Minh City, for supporting
my research on Tet, and to
the University of Canterbury
for research funding. I
also thank two anonymous
reviewers who made useful
comments on an earlier draft
and whose suggestions I have
incorporated.
1. Useful summaries of
this literature can be found in
Taylor 2007 and DiGregorio
& Salemink 2007.
2. Kwon 2006: 104, cited
in Roszko 2010: 4-5.
3. See http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=n1N8wyGsJ
BA&feature=related; Thnh
knh, trang nghim L gi
T Hng Vng (The
respectful and solemn Hung
Vuong Death Aniversary);
http://baophutho.vn/
den-hung/huong-toi-ngaygio-to/201203/Thanh-kinhtrang-nghiem-Le-gio-ToHung-Vuong-2160134/
4. Ph Ch tch nc
dng hng n Kinh Dng
Vng (The Vice-President
offers incenses at Kinh
Duong Vuong Temple),
http://truongtansangvn.
blogspot.com.au/ 2012/06/
chu-tich-nuoc-truong-tansang-dang.html; http://
www.quytubodenhung.vn/
news/928/Den-tho-DucQuoc-to-Lac-Long-Quan.html
5. L hi n th Hai B
Trng (The Hai Ba Trung
temple festival); http://www.
tinmoi.vn/le-hoi-den-tho-haiba-trung-08831931.html
18

The background
The efflorescence of religion in Vietnam has coincided
with and been linked to the economic reforms and liberalization of the country after 1986 (known as i mi,
meaning renewal or renovation) and also to events
such as the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe and
the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Religious institutions
and practices formerly forbidden in terms of communist
ideology are now accepted and officially approved, or in
some cases just tolerated.
Both the Party and the government (which the Party
controls), have formally recognized a number of the
established faiths. Other practices that have become very
popular, such as spirit mediumship rituals (ln ng), are
still regarded as superstition (m tn), but are tolerated
as part of folk culture (Pham Quynh Phuong 2009: 159).
These also currently enjoy considerable coverage in the
popular press.
Similarly, Soul-callers and specialists in finding the
graves of war dead, formerly regarded as fraudsters now
have credibility (Endres & Lauser 2012: 131), and stateappointed mediums are used to find the bodies of soldiers
killed in the American war (Bouquet 2010) so that they
can be afforded a proper burial. A wary state still carefully monitors religious activities through regulations and
organizations such as its Institute of Research on Religion,
established in 1992. However, leaders now not only sanction non-threatening practices but also actively participate
in public rituals and festivals in the name of national unity
and praise them as contributing to building the fatherland
(Bouquet 2010: 91-96).
Anthropologists have pointed out that the states renewed
interest in religion stems partly from the activities of the
people themselves and the upsurge in religious practices
during the 1980s and 1990s (Taylor 2007; Pham Quynh
Phuong 2009). This resonates with what Kerkvliet (2001)
has termed the dialogical model of state-society relations
in Vietnam, whereby the state acts partly in accordance
with pressures from below.
Various reasons have been suggested for this turnaround
which seem to fit this model. The development of market
socialism and the move away from centralized economic

PATRICK MCALLISTER

The Vietnam Communist Party and government have

changed their attitudes towards religion, as has been well
documented in the academic literature.1 With religious
activity surging in Vietnam over the past three decades,
one of the main trends is the distinctly religious overtones
of Party-state involvement in well-publicized national
commemorations.
Here I examine the ways in which the Party and government have increased their involvement in the ritual and
celebratory activities of the Vietnamese lunar new year and
national festival (Tet Nguyen Dan or Tet in short). Many
Tet beliefs and practices link back to the ancestor cult and,
through this, have provided a new avenue for political
leadership to connect with the population at large. Tet is
also used to communicate with and encourage overseas
Vietnamese to invest. It furthermore allows connections
to be made between ritual activities, historical (including
military) events and national figures. By turning festivals
such as these into spectacular events, televised nationally,
leaders link the Tet festival to the Party-state and use it to
foster nationalist sentiment and imagination.

PATRICK MCALLISTER

The author is Professor

of Anthropology at the
University of Canterbury in
Christchurch, New Zealand.
His current research interest
is in the Vietnamese lunar
new year (Tet), its associated
rituals and beliefs, and the
ways in which it is celebrated
in Ho Chi Minh City. His
previous work on public ritual
has included research in
South Africas Eastern Cape
Province, and he has recently
published a book on the interethnic and local dimensions
of national days in New
Zealand and Australia. His
email is patrick.mcallister@
canterbury.ac.nz.

PATRICK MCALLISTER

Patrick McAllister

Fig. 1. Pagoda side-altar for Ho Chi Minh.

Fig. 2. Domestic ancestral altar including an image of Ho Chi Minh.
Fig. 3. Altar for Ton Duc Thang in the Ton Duc Thang Museum, Ho Chi
Minh City.
ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY VOL 29 NO 2, APRIL 2013

6. See http://www.
vietnameasytravel.com/
Vietnam-travel-festival/
Lam-Kinh-Festival-honoursnational-hero-Le-Loi.asp;
http://www.easysapatours.
com/Sapa_travel_news.
asp?id=6; http://www.
vnnnews.net/lam-kinhfestival-2
7. Offering incense at
Hung Kings temple before
giao tha. http://vietnamnet.
vn/vn/xa-hoi/109040/danghuong-o-den-hung-truocgiao-thua.html; see also http://
hcm.24h.com.vn/tin-video/
le-dang-huong-dem-giao-thuatai-den-hung-c499a520530.
html
8. See Dong Da Victory
celebrated in Binh Dinh;
http://news.chaobuoisang.net/
dong-da-victory-celebrated-inbinh-dinh-194261.htm; Hanoi
marks 222nd anniversary
of Dong Da victory; http://
en.baomoi.com/Home/
cultureart/ en.vietnamplus.
vn/Hanoi-marks-222ndanniversary-of-Dong-Davictory/108661.epi;
9. The tree planting
tradition continues today;
See President Ho inspires
tree planting. http://
english.vietnamnet.vn/en/
society/4636/president-hoinspires-tet-planting.html
10. Leaders Pay Tet Visits
with Best Wishes; http://
www.saigon- gpdaily.com.vn/
National/ 2006/2/44716/
11. Christoph Giebel
(personal communication)
has commented that there
was no altar in the Tan Duc
Thang Museum when he
did fieldwork there in 1992,
and the altar in the Ho Chi
Minh Museum was probably
added when it changed its
status from exhibition to
commemorative place in
1982, or possibly when it
became a museum in 1995.
12. See, for example, http://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd4VlEIc4g&feature=related;
and http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=Hzv52Px7q2M&feat
ure=related
13. Temple to worship
President Ho Chi Minhs
relatives to be built; http://
www.nhandan.com.vn/cmlink/
nhandan-online/homepage/
society/current/temple-toworship-president-ho-chiminh-s-relatives-to-be-built1.352688?mode=print.
14. Ch tch nc cng
kiu bo th c chp tin ng
To v tri. (The President
and overseas Vietnamese
release carp to see Ong Tao off
to Heaven); http://dantri.com.
vn/c20/s20-556942/chu-tichnuoc-cung-kieu-bao-tha-cachep-tien-ong-tao-ve-troi.htm
15. Gigantic Banh
Chung Takes Long Journey
to Ancestral Land; http://
www.saigon-gpdaily.com.vn/
Culture_Art/2007/4/55496/
16. See http://
www.youtube.com/
watch?v=G331biRxwaQ;
http://clip.vn/watch/Tong-bithu-du-le-dang-huong-gio-toHung-Vuong,DbFU?fm=se

planning as a consequence of the modernizing project of

i mi is also associated with a more open and tolerant
attitude towards religion. Economic reform, it is argued,
presented ordinary folk with various challenges associated
with a market economy, and the popularity of the spirits
is linked to the everyday concern with economic security.
Recourse to religion and ritual alleviates uncertainty and
inequality under market conditions, and offers meaning
and agency to the relatively marginalized and disadvantaged. Economic growth after i mi also increased disposable income and made greater expenditure on ritual
(including Tet ritual) possible.
Others attribute the proliferation of religious practices
and the re-emergence of those formerly banned or hidden,
to a decline in state power and loss of faith in the ideology
of state socialism. After i mi the states legitimacy and
credibility, based on what the revolution had achieved
and put in place, dwindled, and its former role in unifying
the nation became insufficient to guarantee popular support as the economic and social changes associated with
i mi took hold.
Given the increase in popular ritual activity, supporting
religious and commemorative practices has become a way
for the state to redefine its role; to be seen to continue
to provide leadership and foster national integration while
maintaining a distinctive Vietnamese culture in the face
of possibly undesirable foreign influences and values that
i mi made possible. It nevertheless also continues to
remind the population of its role in liberating and unifying
the country, and Tet provides a good opportunity for this
due to its association with military events such as the Tet
offensive of 1968.
Ancestor worship plays a crucial role here. State
involvement in the religious sphere is facilitated by the
Vietnamese view that the dead influence the lives of the
living, and that the latter have obligations towards their
ancestors. On this basis, the Party-state innovatively
makes links between the ancestor cult at family, local and
national levels. Ancestor worship is officially approved
as a national religious tradition (Roszko 2010: 4), perhaps because of the emphasis on family reunion at an
ancestral home, and because rituals which stress common
origins or locality act as an antidote to the new economic
and social realities often characterized by mobility and
dispersion (Jellema 2007). Returning to an ancestral
home during Tet remains a strong ideal and is common
practice in Vietnam.
The practice of ancestor worship has been extended
to include dead war heroes and former military leaders.
This fits into a long tradition of venerating those who
have repelled foreign invaders and who are seen as protectors of the fatherland (Malarney 2001: 47). In other
words, ancestor worship has become the technology of
national integration. Imagining the nation-state became
a matter of thinking about dead war heroes within the
familiar system of ancestor worship.2 During Tet these
things come together: family ancestors are worshipped,
certain important historical events associated with
national heroes are commemorated, and crucial military
victories recalled.
National heroes include legendary founders of the
nation, especially the Hung Kings. Official commemoration of such figures attempts to maintain continuity
with the past, reinforce the legitimacy of the Party-state,
and construct an imagined national community led by
it. Figures such as the Trung sisters, who led a rebellion against Chinese rule some 2000 years ago, and Tran
Hung Dao, the military tactician who repelled Mongol
invasions in the 13th century, are effectively used by the
state for the purpose of nation building (Pham Quynh
Phuong 2009: 8).

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY VOL 29 NO 2, APRIL 2013

Of course, this is not entirely new. The promotion of

national culture and national identity in association
with the veneration of national heroes by the state goes
back to at least 1946 (ibid: 149-153) and there are precedents from previous centuries as well. However, heroes
such as Tran Hung Dao have been rediscovered and the
intensity, range, and frequency of Party-state involvement
in the commemoration of ancestral heroes has increased.
Tet thus provides an ideal opportunity for the political
leadership to promote nationalist sentiment through rituals,
with an emphasis on what Vietnamese refer to as remembering the source. It has been suggested that the aim is to
boost Party-state authority and leadership as the memory
of its role in the struggle against the French and Americans
fades (Bouquet 2010: 99). However, given that the state
not only imposes on religion but also reacts to the work
of intellectuals and to popular practices, one also needs
to see the changing shape of religious practice in Vietnam
in terms of this interaction and mutual accommodation: if
the Party-state imagines that it represents the nation, then
it needs to persuade the nation to imagine that the government is in tune with it. By authorizing and participating in
certain forms of religion (and tolerating others) the state
shows that it is in harmony with the population at large as
it exercises leadership.
The Hung Kings
Probably the most prominent and spectacular state involvement in commemorative ritual concerns the Hung Kings,
national ancestors (quc t) and legendary founders of the
Vietnamese nation. In 2007 a new national public holiday
was created to commemorate their collective death anniversary on the 10th day of the third month in the lunar
calendar. Although these events are often translated as
festivals (l hi) this term actually combines ritual
(l ) including actions such as offering incense, prayer
orations and kowtowing with festivity (hi), which
includes elaborate cultural performances and celebratory
activities. Party and state officials regularly participate in
both aspects, explicitly on behalf of the nation.3
More recent innovations have extended this trend to
include worship of the legendary ancestor of the Hung
Kings, the countrys original ancestor (thy t) Kinh
Duong Vuong; his son, Lac Long Quan, the Father of the
Country; and the latters fairy wife Au Co, the Mother
of the Country.4 Other national heroes have also in recent
years been accorded such attention in the name of patriotism and nationalism, including the Trung sisters,5 King
Ly Thai To (Hanois founder), Le Thai To (Le Loi) and
Nguyen Trai, the scholar-tactician associated with King Le
Thai To (Pham Quynh Phuong 2009: 160).6
These elaborate festivals are constructed by the state
using state funds, and can be seen as what Handelman
(1997) calls state spectacles, in terms of which the
Party-state attempts to present a vision of a cosmological
and cultural order in which the Party-state itself features
prominently as guardian and promoter of the nations heritage. It is a case to paraphrase Geertz (1980: 13) of
pomp serving power, similar to the ways in which other
states (e.g. Singapore) have used national day spectacles
to attempt to construct a particular kind of national identity
and ethos (Kong & Yeoh 1997).
National heroes and the Tet festival
Nowadays the Hung Kings are also worshipped as part of
Tet. In 2013, an elaborate ritual on the day before Tet and
in the lead up to giao tha (the sacred moment marking
the transition between the old and new year) was held
at the Hung Kings Temple and broadcast nationally on
TV.7 Incense was burned at the exact moment of transition by Party and local government officials on behalf of
19

Bouquet, M. 2010.
Vietnamese party-state
and religious pluralism
since 1986: Building the
fatherland? SOJURN:
Journal of Social Issues
in Southeast Asia 25(1):
90-108.
DiGregorio, M. & O.
Salemink 2007. Living
with the dead: The politics
of ritual and remembrance
in contemporary Vietnam.
Journal of Southeast Asian
Studies 38(3):433-440.
Endres, K.& A. Lauser
2012. Contests of
commemoration: Virgin
war martyrs, state
memorials, and the
invocation of the spirit
world in contemporary
Vietnam. In Endres, K. &
A. Lauser (eds). Engaging
the spirit world: Popular
beliefs and practices in
modern Southeast Asia,
121-143. New York:
Berghahn Books.
Geertz, C. 1980. Negara: The
theatre state in NineteenthCentury Bali. Princeton
University Press.
Giebel, C. 2001. Museum
shrine: Revolution and its
tutelary spirit in the village
of My Hoa Hung. In Tai,
H-T.H. (ed.) The country
of memory: Remaking
the past in late socialist
Vietnam, 77-105. Berkeley:
University of California
Press.
Handelman, D. 1997. Rituals/
spectacles. International
Social Sciences Journal
153(September): 387-399.
Jellema, K. 2007. Returning
home: Ancestor veneration
and the nationalism of i
mi Vietnam. In Taylor,
P. (ed.) Modernity and
re-enchantment: Religion
in post-revolutionary
Vietnam, 57-89. Singapore:
Institute of Southeast Asian
Studies.
Kerkvliet, B. 2001. An
approach for analysing
state-society relations
in Vietnam. SOJOURN:
Journal of Social Issues
in Southeast Asia 16(2):
238-278.
Kong, L.& B. Yeoh 1997. The
construction of national
identity through the
production of ritual and
spectacle: An analysis of
national days in Singapore.
Political Geography 16(3):
213-239.
Kwon, H. 2006. After the
massacre: Commemoration
and consolation in Ha My
and My Lai. Berkley &
Los Angeles: University of
California Press.
Malarney, S. 2001. The
fatherland remembers
your sacrifice. In Tai,
H-T.H. (ed.). The country
of memory: Remaking
the past in late socialist
Vietnam, 46-76. Berkley &
Los Angeles: University of
California Press.
2002. Culture, ritual and
revolution in Vietnam.
Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press.
20

the nation. The use of customary Tet offerings (incense,

rice cakes, a five fruits platter and flowers) made to the
Hung Kings, as well as the performance of traditional
folk games and dances, helped to authenticate this event.
Party-state involvement in Tet ritual can thus be seen at
least partly as an attempt to transform the national cultural
festival into a state spectacle.
As with other forms of Party-state ritual associated with
Tet, the importance of family and the role of the head of the
family in securing good fortune in the forthcoming year
from mystical powers during Tet, is the idiom through
which the leadership operates, assuming the role of head
of the national family and acting on its behalf.
Prominent government leaders also participate in Tet
events associated with other national heroes such as Tran
Hung Dao (Pham Quynh Phuong 2009: 160) and Nguyen
Hue, annually commemorating the Ngoc Hoi-Dong Da
victory when Nguyen Hue and the Tay Son army defeated
the Chinese at Thang Long (todays Hanoi), on the fourth
and fifth days of Tet each year.8 The most recent of
Vietnams national ancestral heroes, of course, is Ho Chi
Minh (popularly known as Bac Ho, Uncle Ho) and his
successor, Ton Duc Thang, the commemoration of whom
has taken on an increasingly religious form since i mi
(Giebel 2001: 77).
Although Bac Ho himself tried to discourage the more
backward aspects of Tet and promoted the planting of
trees as part of the festival (Malarney 2002: 71),9 he is
now frequently the subject of Tet ritual. One of the main
sites at which Bac Ho is venerated is the house on stilts
in Hanoi, the leaders former residence and part of the Ho
Chi Minh Museum and Mausoleum complex in Ba Dinh.
In Ho Chi Minh City similar attention is paid to Bac Ho
at Ben Nha Rong, the Ho Chi Minh Museum, and also to
Ton Duc Thang at the nearby Ton Duc Thang Museum.10
In both of these museums there are rooms in which these
former leaders are worshipped on important national days
such as Tet, their birthdays, and their death anniversaries.
These rooms were added to the two museums relatively
recently and they include statues or portraits of the former
leaders above altars with incense burners, candles, flower
and fruit offerings and other accoutrements usually found
in places of worship.11
Every Tet eve, the Vietnamese president delivers a televised address to the nation, standing in front of a large bust
of Ho Chi Minh on a table draped with the national flag,
a form of altar that is commonly found with flowers and
sometimes an incense burner in front of it.12 Recently, Ho
Chi Minhs close relatives, too, have become the subject
of national public veneration.13
Tet and the Party-state welcome overseas
Vietnamese
In the larger cities during Tet, local authorities organize
elaborate welcoming events for overseas Vietnamese
(known as Viet Kieu) who are visiting the homeland. I
attended one of these events in Hanoi in 2012, a week or
so before Tet. It took place at the Ho Chi Minh Museum. In
the Museum forecourt an elaborate and sumptuous buffet
had been laid out and a row of canvas booths provided
accommodation for calligraphists making Tet wall hangings and for property developers and financial institutions
offering the visitors brochures with invitations to explore
investment opportunities in Vietnam. A full programme,
including a welcome by the president, unfolded. It was a
lavish affair, carefully choreographed, with no expense
spared.
The following day was 23 December, the day on which
the kitchen god, Ong Tao or Tao Quan, is traditionally worshipped in households and sent to heaven to report to the
Jade Emperor on the affairs of the family. In the north, Ong

Tao is provided with three golden carp which are thought

to transform into dragons and are Ong Taos means of
transport to heaven.
Just a few hours prior to the welcoming event I
attended, there was another assembly of some 1000 overseas Vietnamese in the same area, led by the Vietnamese
President Truong Tan Sang. Here, proceedings included
ceremonial incense offerings to commemorate ancestral
kings in Thang Long Royal Citadel led by the Deputy
Minister of Foreign Affairs, followed by a visit to Mot Cot
(One Pillar) Pagoda, where the deputy minister and overseas guests conducted the ceremonial of releasing birds
to the heavens. Later, President Truong Tan Sang led the
assembly in offering incense in remembrance of Bac Ho
at the stilt house. After that, the president and Viet Kieu
conducted the traditional ritual/ceremony (nghi l) of
releasing carp to see off Ong Tao on his return to Heaven.14
Not long ago these kinds of Taoist rituals were regarded
as unacceptable and attempts were made to ban them.
Malarney (2002: 86-87) points out that the Party and state
tried to appropriate Tet for their own purposes from the
1950s onwards, but they wanted it to be celebrated in
keeping with the socialist ideals of thrift and hard work
and without the incorporation of backward superstitions
and excessive expenditure. In this attempt they were not
successful. However, they did not discourage the close
relationship between the living and their ancestors that is
characteristic of Tet, but Malarney (2002: 92) feels that
villagers did not appreciate the subtle distinction between
ancestral and other kinds of spirits, so by maintaining Tet,
the Party-state unwittingly also allowed these beliefs and
rituals to continue.
The Rice Cake Festival (Le Hoi Banh Tet)
At a local government level, too, the Party is directly
involved in both the festive and the ritual elements of Tet.
In Ho Chi Minh City, the Peoples Committee, through its
major tourism operation Saigon Tourist Holdings, organizes a number of high profile public activities under the
banner of the Rice Cake Festival (l hi bnh tt). Bnh
tt are the cylindrical rice cakes associated with Tet in the
south, which contrast with bnh chng, the square rice
cakes associated with Tet in the north.
The Rice Cake festival includes a variety of spectacular
displays and performances, and attracts tens of thousands
of citizens to the city centre each year. Some of these
events involve religious activities in which leading members of the Peoples Committee worship national heroic
figures and founding ancestors on behalf of the citizens
and the nation.
In 2008 its highlight was a three-hour street parade in
the city centre, with many large troupes of marchers in colourful dress evoking Tet themes, elaborate floats, musical
and dance groups, and so on. This event was watched by a
live audience of tens of thousands of people and millions
more on TV. The high point of the parade was the arrival
of two giant rice cakes on flat-bed trucks, weighing 3.5
tons each, preceded by a uniformed brass band. These had
been made at Dam Sen Park, a popular amusement park
and also one of the local Peoples Committees enterprises.
Proudly proclaimed as a Guinness record, these rice
cakes were then officially offered in worship at a specially constructed altar by the vice-chair of the Peoples
Committee, accompanied by other officials. Incense
was burned, the official Party members kowtowed in
front of the altar, and a large slice of the giant rice cake
was offered to the heroes and ancestors of the nation,
including Ho Chi Minh (the MCs commentary made this
quite explicit).
After this solemn act of public worship, the giant cakes
were divided into thousands of portions and given to memANTHROPOLOGY TODAY VOL 29 NO 2, APRIL 2013

PATRICK MCALLISTER

PATRICK MCALLISTER

PATRICK MCALLISTER

PATRICK MCALLISTER

L HONG ANH TH

PATRICK MCALLISTER

PATRICK MCALLISTER
PATRICK MCALLISTER

(From above to below, left to right)

Fig. 4. Tet rice cakes and assorted pickles.
Fig. 5. Rice cake making competition.
Fig. 6. Winning rice cakes carried into the Hung Kings
ANTHROPOLOGY
Temple, Ho Cho MinhTODAY
City. VOL 29 NO 2, APRIL 2013

Fig. 7. Officials burn incense for Ton Duc Thang.

Fig. 8. Monument to those killed in the attack on the US
Embassy during Tet 1968.
Fig. 9. Hng m (votive offerings) shop.

Fig. 10. Overseas Vietnamese (Viet Kieu) in front of Ho Chi

Minhs mausoleum.
Fig 11. Calligraphists making Tet wall hangings.
21

PATRICK MCALLISTER
PATRICK MCALLISTER

Fig. 12. Celebrate the Year

of the Dragon, celebrate the
glorious Party, celebrate the
renewed country.
Fig. 13. Eternal spirit of the
general offensive. The Year of
the Monkey 1968 lives on!

Pham Quynh Phuong 2009.

Hero and deity: Tran Hung
Dao and the resurgence
of popular religion in
Vietnam. Chiang Mai:
Mekong Press.
Roszko, E. 2010.
Commemoration and
the state: Memory and
legitimacy in Vietnam.
SOJOURN: Journal of
Social Issues in Southeast
Asia 25(1): 1-28.
Taylor, P. 2001. Fragments
of the present: Searching
for modernity in Vietnams
south. Sydney/Honolulu:
Allen & Unwin/University
of Hawaii Press.
2007. Modernity and
re-enchantment: Religion
in post-revolutionary
Vietnam. In Taylor, P.
(ed.). Modernity and
re-enchantment: Religion
in post-revolutionary
Vietnam, 1-56. Singapore:
Institute of Southeast
Asian Studies.
Thomas, M. 2001. Public
spaces/public disgraces:
Crowds and the state in
contemporary Vietnam.
SOJOURN: Journal of
Social Issues in Southeast
Asia 16(2): 306-330.
22

bers of the large crowd just before it dispersed. This was

reminiscent of a family partaking of the food offered to the
ancestors after a ritual propitiating or welcoming the latter
into the home (a ritual known as rc ng b commonly
performed by most Vietnamese families on the day before
Tet). This is another example, then, of how ancestor worship at familial and national levels are conflated by means
of government ritual, and of how officials use Tet ritual to
promote the Party as popular leader.
In 2007, Dam Sen Park workers also made a giant 2.6 ton
bnh chng and a 1.2 ton bnh dy rice cake, and sent these
1,800 km to Phu Tho province in the north for the Hung
Kings death anniversary.15 The association between the
Hung Kings and Tet lies in these two rice cakes, especially
bnh chng, which is an indispensable part of Tet in the
north, an essential offering on ancestral altars, and a symbol
of regional and national identity. These two rice cakes are
also a prominent part of the offerings to the Hung Kings
during Tet and on their annual collective death anniversary.16
From 2009 onwards however, due to the changed financial climate in Vietnam and internationally, the expensive street parade in Ho Chi Minh City and the giant rice
cakes were replaced with a city-wide rice cake-making
competition. This competition concluded with well publicized public worship at the Hung Kings Temple near
the botanical gardens and zoo. Here, the ultimate winners
of the competition had the honour of seeing their rice
cakes being carried into the temple on a palanquin by
traditionally dressed young men and women (employees
of Saigon Tourist Holdings) and placed on the altar
as offerings by a representative of the citys Peoples
Committee. Immediately after this, some of the winning
rice cakes were also offered to Ho Chi Minh and Ton Duc
Thang by the same group of dignitaries, who lit incense,
kowtowed and offered flowers, fruit and rice cakes to
these two supreme modern heroes at their respective
museum-shrines.
Messages on the streets and the Tet offensive
In Vietnams cities, during the lunar new year festival
large street posters and banners hung from public buildings make general links between the Tet festival, the Party,
and the nation. They also link the party to the national
social and economic development attributed to i mi.
For example:
Celebrate the year of the Tiger, celebrate the glorious Party,
celebrate the renewed country.

Some banners also reference specific events that enable

this link between Tet and the Party to be made, particularly
certain important political and military anniversaries that
coincide with Tet such as the founding of the Vietnamese
Communist Party (3-7 February 1930). Thus among the
banners and billboards displaying Tet slogans and images
are others reminding people of this anniversary, the debt
that the country owes to Ho Chi Minh, the Party, the revolution, and so on, such as:
Celebrate the year of Buffalo 2009 on the occasion of the
79th anniversary of the Vietnam Communist Party: the Party
Committee and the people of Binh Thanh District warmly welcome the New Year of Buffalo 2009.

The founding of the Party is also celebrated at commemorative gatherings broadcast on national TV immediately before Tet, and accompanied by various activities
such as public exhibitions. For example, in 2010 the
Youth Cultural Centre in Ho Chi Minh City held an
exhibition to welcome the new year and at the same
time mark the 80th anniversary of the establishment of
the Party. Similar events took place during the Party
Congress (held every five years) at around this time. The
2011 Party Congress in Hanoi was announced in Ho Chi
Minh City with banners like:

HCM city greets the new year 2011, and welcomes the 11th
National Congress of the Party.

The phrase when you drink the water remember the

source is commonly heard in public during Tet, often
spoken by leaders at commemorative events in reference
to family ancestors and national heroes as well as heroic
martyrs, including soldiers, who died in the cause of the
nation. In this respect one of the things now remembered
nationally every Tet is the 1968 Tet offensive, a turning
point in the war which played an important role in finally
ousting the Americans and their allies in 1975. So in spite
of the i mi reforms the state reminds the nation of its
guardian role each Tet, through actions such as recalling
the Tet offensive with street banners urging citizens to
remember Xun Mu Thn 1968 (Spring in the Year of
the Monkey 1968).
Public events during Tet include special exhibitions
depicting the actions of war heroes and martyrs, receptions
for war veterans, and so on. During Tet, a monument outside
the site of the former US Embassy building in Ho Chi Minh
City commemorating those who died in the attack on the
Embassy on 31 January 1968 by North Vietnamese Army
and Vietcong troops is transformed with banners, while
those who died are commemorated through the addition of
flowers and incense placed on the memorial. In 2008, the
banners on either side of the monument read: Eternal spirit
of the general offensive New Year of the Monkey 1968
and The country is eternally grateful and remembers the
service of the heroic revolutionary martyrs.
Conclusion
Thomas (2001) argues that in the 1980s and 1990s ordinary people in Vietnam, critical of the government and its
policies, withdrew from participating in stage-managed
Party-state activities and started to find new ways of congregating in public spaces for activities that were largely
non-political (e.g. celebrity funerals, football matches)
but which were nevertheless potentially threatening to the
authorities. Initially the Party-state attempted to discourage
some of these gatherings, which included religious pilgrimages and festivals, which were growing in popularity every
year, and which facilitated the development of a sense
of community and shared emotion (2001: 321). I suggest
that the evidence presented above shows that the Partystate later reacted to this by itself becoming more involved
in these festivals and pilgrimages, providing financial and
logistical support for them, re-inventing them in some
ways and inventing others, declaring them to be part of
national identity and Vietnamese culture, and positioning
itself as the guardian and promoter of this identity and culture by means of these events and the media coverage of
them. This applies to the Tet festival as much as it does to
the commemoration of national heroes.
In this respect the Party-state continued to claim, as
it had in the past, that the various festivals and commemorations which it supported and participated in,
upheld values and principles that were a manifestation
of Vietnamese tradition and culture, which it continued
to uphold in the post i mi era. Some have in fact
claimed that the success of the Vietnam Communist
Party from the 1930s onwards was due to its ability to
represent traditional concerns (Taylor 2001: 7-8). On the
other hand, the religious revivals in Vietnam are closely
linked to its engagement with aspects of modernity,
economic liberalization and globalization, so to portray
them as traditional, as the Party-state attempts to do,
is clearly questionable from a scholarly point of view.
Rather, it is a notion of tradition that is continually being
re-invented and used by the Party-state as a strategic
symbolic resource in its attempts to maintain power and
legitimacy. l
ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY VOL 29 NO 2, APRIL 2013