Goodbye, again: Vietnam’s reburials send souls on final journey

In the dead of night in a Hanoi cemetery, Nguyen Van Thang’s casket was unearthed; his bones carefully cleaned, wrapped in silk and then reburied, so he can finally segue into the next life.

The ceremony is one of Vietnam’s most sacred death rituals, an ancient custom usually carried out before the Tet lunar new year, which falls in early February this year, as the final act in life’s journey.

Many Vietnamese, especially in the north, honour their dead with reburials – normally three years after their loved ones are first laid to rest.

Modernity is chipping away at the tradition with cremations preferred as a more simple, clean and cheap passage into the afterlife. For Thang’s relatives, however, meeting his wishes of a reburial three years after he died of cancer aged 59 was never in question.

“Finally, he can rest in his nice new home. I feel so blessed and happy,” said his wife Ha Thi Thua from his graveside at a cemetery on the outskirts of Hanoi.

The hours-long ceremonies are not for the impatient – or faint of heart. Beginning in the evening, a shaman makes offerings to the spirit guardian and the deceased – in Thang’s case, sticky rice, boiled chicken, a paper horse model for the spirit guardian to ride on and fake US dollar bills among a cornucopia of items.

Then the shaman chants and tosses coins to gain “permission” from the dead and the grave’s spiritual guardian to begin the ritual, before the coffin is dug out by gravediggers and relatives.