Please refrain from burning votive paper during the Vu Lan festival (a Buddhist festival honoring parents).

The Vietnam Buddhist Association advises that during this year's Vu Lan filial piety festival, organizations collecting money for offerings in the form of spiritual services should be avoided; and the burning of votive paper should be prohibited.

The Vietnam Buddhist Association requests that the burning of votive paper offerings be avoided during the Vu Lan filial piety festival. (Illustrative image - Photo: NLĐ)

Venerable Thich Thien Nhon, Vice Dharma Chief of the Council of Buddhist Elders and Chairman of the Executive Council of the Vietnam Buddhist Association, has just signed and issued a Circular on the organization of the Vu Lan Festival of Filial Piety, Buddhist Calendar 2568, Gregorian Calendar 2024.

According to the official announcement, the Vu Lan festival, a time for showing filial piety in the seventh lunar month each year, has become a thousand-year-old cultural tradition of the Vietnamese people.

This is a time for everyone to practice and deeply engrave the vow of filial piety towards parents, grandparents, and loved ones, and also a time to remember and express gratitude to ancestors, national heroes, martyrs, and the forefathers of the Vietnamese people.

Therefore, the Standing Committee of the Council of Buddhist Affairs proposes that the Central Boards and Institutes, the Buddhist Boards at all levels, and all temples, monastic institutions, monks, nuns, and lay Buddhists organize the Vu Lan Festival of Filial Piety on the days of the 7th lunar month of the Year of the Dragon, with the main ceremony on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month (August 18, 2024).

The Vu Lan Festival will be held at monasteries and temples of the Vietnam Buddhist Association. Main activities include: organizing a memorial service, lighting candles in remembrance and gratitude to fallen heroes and martyrs at cemeteries; chanting the Vu Lan Sutra, the Sutra of Filial Piety to Parents, the Sutra of Mục Liên's Repentance, the Amitabha Sutra… to pray for the souls of fallen heroes and martyrs; lectures on the meaning of Vu Lan filial piety; the ritual of pinning roses on clothing to express gratitude for the merits of parents' upbringing; and artistic performances about the love and sacrifice of parents (if any)…

On this occasion, Venerable Thich Thien Nhon emphasized the importance of organizing the procurement of offerings, avoiding charging fees for offerings in the form of spiritual services and rituals that are inconsistent with the true Dharma and traditional ceremonies.

In particular, the Vietnam Buddhist Church requests that people refrain from burning votive paper, practice good fire prevention and control, and engage in practical charitable activities to help those in difficult circumstances, thereby transforming these actions into good karma to show filial piety to their ancestors and parents.

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