Vu Lan, the festival of filial piety

Vu Lan comes from the Ullambana Sutra of Mahayana Buddhism. The sutra tells how the Venerable Maudgalyayana, one of the Buddha's ten great disciples and foremost in spiritual powers, used his divine sight after attaining realisation to look for his mother. To his grief he saw her, known to Vietnamese as Lady Thanh Đề, suffering among the hungry ghosts, her body reduced to skin and bone and her throat as thin as a needle.

Out of love, Maudgalyayana brought her a bowl of rice. But starved for so long, she shielded the bowl with one hand and grabbed food with the other, and the rice turned to burning coals before it reached her mouth. Weeping, he returned to tell the Buddha. The Buddha taught that his mother's karma was too heavy for one son to lift, however great his powers, and that it needed the combined prayers of the monastic community of the ten directions.

The Buddha told Maudgalyayana to wait for the full moon of the seventh month, the day of Pravarana when monks complete their three-month rains retreat, and to offer them a hundred kinds of food, fruit and daily necessities. Through the pure merit of the monks after their season of practice, his mother was freed from suffering. The Buddha added that every devoted child could do the same to repay the kindness of parents in this life and in many past lives.

The name Vu Lan Bồn is a transcription of the Sanskrit Ullambana, usually explained as rescuing those hanging upside down, that is, in the deepest suffering. The Buddhist festival reached China around the sixth century and then Vietnam, where it merged with a culture of filial piety that runs very deep. Vietnamese folk verse speaks often of a father's toil and a mother's devotion, so Vu Lan has been embraced as a festival for every family, not only for Buddhists.

A father's toil is like Mount Tai; a mother's love is like water flowing from the spring.

Vietnamese folk verse

On the same full moon, Vietnamese folk tradition also holds the rite of pardon for the dead. It comes from the Taoist Zhongyuan festival and the belief that on this day the Earth Official grants pardons and the gates of the underworld open so souls may return to receive offerings. Vietnamese people pity the souls who have no one to worship them, so they make an outdoor offering to wandering souls of thin porridge, rice and salt, puffed corn and sweets.

The great poet Nguyễn Du wrote the Elegy for the Ten Kinds of Beings, also called the Soul-Summoning Elegy, mourning ten kinds of people who died alone, from the powerful to the poor, soldiers fallen in battle and traders who died on the road. In the south, after the rite, families scatter coins and sweets for children and passers-by to grab, sharing blessings with the living. Many places now hand out gifts directly for order and safety.

In the seventh month the rain drags on and on, and the autumn wind chills dry bones to the marrow.

Nguyễn Du, Elegy for the Ten Kinds of Beings

In 1962 Zen master Thích Nhất Hạnh wrote the essay A Rose for Your Pocket, about missing his mother, and suggested a simple ritual for Vu Lan: those whose mother is alive pin a red rose to their shirt and feel their happiness, those who have lost her wear a white rose in remembrance. Born in 1926 in Thừa Thiên, he was ordained at Từ Hiếu pagoda in Huế and passed away at the same pagoda in 2022.

The essay was quickly reprinted, read aloud at Vu Lan ceremonies and spread to pagodas across the South. In 1967 composer Phạm Thế Mỹ set it to music as the song A Rose on the Lapel, still sung at almost every Vu Lan celebration. The ritual grew as well: pale pink for those with one parent still living, yellow for monastics.

What has kept the ritual alive for more than sixty years is its simplicity. No money or elaborate offerings are needed; a single flower on the chest is enough to make a child stop and count how much time remains with their parents. Many people say the first time a white rose was pinned on them was the moment they truly understood filial love.

Today, throughout the seventh lunar month, pagodas hold Vu Lan ceremonies with the rose ritual, the chanting of the Ullambana Sutra, lantern floating and charity programmes. Many families make the full-moon offering at home, with a tray for the ancestors indoors and a tray for wandering souls in the yard. Many people eat vegetarian for the whole month to pray for living parents and for the peace of those who have passed.

For young people working far from home, Vu Lan is a reminder to call home, plan a trip back or treat their parents to a meal. Many companies give flowers, hold a talk about family or let staff leave early on the full moon. The most meaningful gift is still time, because as the season reminds us, work can wait, but parents cannot wait forever.