Any Vietnamese Catholics here?

Question

I am an anthropology student looking for some information on Vietnamese Catholic home altars including Holy Family altars, Marian altars, patron saint altars, and ancestor altars. What is the significance of the altars and the statues, holy cards, and other blessed objects that adorn them? What are some of the more popular saints, and other items (incense, rosaries, holy water, food, fruit) located on the altars? Are certain devotional practices held in the home with the altars as a focal point? Where are the altars located in the home and what happens to blessed objects when they are broken, old or worn-- are they thrown away? Are the altars used in Tet celebrations? If any members of your congregation religious or lay could help it would be very much appreciated.

Hello Ong Jon,
Thank you so much for the information. I live in NY and I am researching Vietnamese Catholic spiritual life and material life both in the US and Vietnam. Have you spent much time with Catholics in Vietnam or in another country? I would be grateful if you would email some of these photos. Did you visit the La Vang shrine?

Answer 1

maybe this will help...viet namese catholic's patron or "matron "as it were would be the virgin mary. she appeared in a place near hue i believe in the year1800 or there about. they call that place "la vang" [ litteraly " the gold"] and they call her , "me la vang" "mother of gold" or golden mother. the catholics take their religion VERY seriously in viet nam... in most communities they are awake and at mass at 4:30 am EVERY morning. if you want to give a cathiolic there a nice gift , give them something with "duc me" on it [ duc me= blessed mother]. last year in sai gon a statue of the blessed mother outside the famos cathedral[ in her name] there,shed a tear from her right eye... it drew quite a crowd for days and was very special. there are vietnamese saints. one i believe was a priest back a hundred years or so... but i regret i know no more...oh, almost everybody in viet nam , catholic or not celebrates some sort of ancestor worship.... almost every family has an ancestoral shrine in the front room of their home. many catholics will say evening prayer [ the rosary ] and read from the bible every night sitting in front of the family shrine...... oh yeah you can buy btls of holly water and bags of tea from "la vang" this is a popular souvonier from "la vang , and is sometime used to help heal illness... ok now that i've read your question again; on the family , and public shrines you will find fruit , incences, and other gifts.. which are initialy put out as gifts for the ancestors , but later used by the family... very respectfully.... i think at least one day in tet is used to celebrate ancestors. "tet trong tu" is another celebration in the fall.. sometimes considered like halloween because small money gifts are given to the children , and bands children will follow the "dragon"[ mulon[sp] ] , the "monkey man "and" mr earth"around the streets as "they"go from house to house collecting money for the church. thats all i got.. but i'm not viet namese and not much of a catholic either.....

Answer 2

im vietnamese. well, i was originally a buddhist, but since i went to a catholic primary school, i converted to a catholic. from there i recently converted into a christian. if you want to know more info just email