VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese people are always respectful of their parents. Therefore, when their parents and grandparents pass away, we always do everything possible to ensure that the dead will have a good life in the other world. However, in modern times, funeral rituals are gradually deformed.






With the concept that the afterlife is the same with the real life, many families try to hold big funerals. Many strange services have been offered to satisfy the need of the dead’s family, as long as they have money.

According to Nguoi Dua Tin newswire, the funeral services at the Phung Hung Funeral Home in Hanoi vary. Normally, funerals will be decorated in the traditional style, with a censer, candles, fruits, small cups of wine and water. For the picky and well-off families, the altar will be decorated sophisticatedly, with a big censer, two trays of fruits and food, horizontal lacquered boards, parallel sentences, big and nice coffin and a special altar worth of VND12-17 million ($600-800).

To meet the maximum demand of the dead’s family, many funeral service providers on Phung Hung road also offer scriptwriters for funerals. Depending on the lifestyle of the deceased when he was in the earth where there are different scenarios. For example, if he liked the Korean culture, his funeral will be organized in Korean style: the stage is in white and black; the receptionists have to wear Korean funeral costumes; the food includes sushi and Korean confectionery; the funeral music is also Korean music, etc.

Also, if one wants his dead relative to bless his family to be in prosperity in the future, he can ask soothsayers to choose good time for the funeral and make a funeral scenario.

Accordingly, the funeral will be held according to royal etiquette. The coffin must be made by rare wood, worth of at least $10,000. The hearse is a big one, with a team of coffin carriers in suits. The funeral script is written based on the information about the dead.

Rowing boat is the custom in many rural areas, which means carrying the spirit of the departed to bliss. But the custom is abused by funeral organizers to make money.

In a funeral in Son Tay, Hanoi, a funeral bandsman pretended to be the boatman. During the boat trip to the cemetery, despite the scorching hot weather, the boatman stopped rowing each several minutes in order to ask for money from the dead’s family. If the dead’s family gave him little money, the ferryman looked unhappy and did not row the boat. Thus the dead’s family had to put big banknotes in the ferryman’s hat so he rowed quickly.

Just like that, the journey from home to the resting place of the deceased was interrupted several times. With a distance of about 1km, the farewell to the deceased also took a few hours because of the boat driver.

Funerals are events of indescribable sadness, when a family says farewell to a beloved member. However, in recent years many families in the southern region make funerals noisy and funny events by hiring orchestras and dancing groups to perform at funerals. Such funerals have no tears of grief but noisy shows all night. Some families even hire troupes of gays who disguise as women in swimwear to sing, dance and perform jugglery at funerals.

HK