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The red veil (khăn phủ diện) is not merely a ritual implement but a symbol imbued with profound spiritual significance within the Mother Goddess Belief of the Three Palaces (Đạo Mẫu Tam Phủ). Placed over the head of the medium (đồng nhân) prior to ea...

In his research, Freud introduced the concepts of the conscious and the unconscious. The conscious reflects phenomena that humans pay attention to, phenomena about which they have relatively full awareness of existence, meaning, and value. The uncons...

Hầu đồng is a form of possession in which deities of the Four Palaces descend into the medium, re-embodying the image of the Holy Mothers and Saints as they appear among humans, close to earthly life. Because of the cultural diversity across regions,...

Within the Mother Goddess belief system, rituals and festivals are abundant and diverse, carrying unique characteristics that distinguish them from other religions and spiritual practices. However, the most central and representative is the ritual of...

1. OriginDance is created to serve human needs and to reflect human life. Generally, dance in Vietnam has either folk or courtly origins, corresponding to the cultural and spiritual demands of the common people or of the aristocracy. Lên đồng dance d...

Hát Chầu Văn (also known as Hát Văn or Hát Bóng) is a distinctive form of Vietnamese folk performance art intrinsically linked with the Mother Goddess Worship (Đạo Mẫu) of the Tam Phủ belief system.^1^ Having endured centuries of socio-historical uph...

1. The Rank of Great Mandarins The costumes comprise five colors: a red robe for the First Mandarin, a blue robe for the Second Mandarin, a white robe for the Third Mandarin, a yellow robe for the Fourth Mandarin, and a light-blue robe for the Fifth ...

Hát văn (ritual chanting) is a highly sophisticated art form that requires exceptional skill and versatility from the cung văn (ritual musicians). Beyond technical mastery, they must be agile and responsive, able to adapt lyrics, vocal timbre, and mu...

Recorded from Lê Bá Linh Temple keeper – Temple at 102 Hàng Bạc, Hoàn Kiếm District, Hanoi We all know that in any religion or belief system, devotees sincerely present offerings to the deities they revere and serve. These offerings may take many dif...

Hầu đồng is one of the central rituals in the Vietnamese Mother Goddess Belief. In many studies, this ritual has usually been approached from two main dimensions: the spiritual and the cultural. However, the psychological perspective—though full of p...