Vietnamese Word of the Day: yeu: love
So last week as part of my Vietnamese Culture Class, I took part in a Len Dong, which is a spirit possession ritual associated with Dao Mau, a Vietnamese Mother Goddess religion. I know. Pretty Awesome.
Without prep or explanation, my teacher led the class into a temple. The outside looked like this.
And there was a god! Or a medium dressed like a god! Or a medium channeling a god! Which then made him become a god!
Regardless, he was dressed in white satin and sequins and was waving his torch of flaming incense dangerously close to both my head and the paper dragons suspended from the ceiling. But I needn't have been concerned: there were about 6 ten year old mediums/gods-in-training fully equipped with a tupperware dish of water to extinguish the torch once it was lobbed in their general direction. They also had t-shirts to collect the burning embers that had scattered in front of the alter/under my respectfully bare feet.
Really though, it was a pretty good time with some sweet music and stylish dancing. As I understood it from our teacher later in class, a family will enlist the spirit medium and put on such a ceremony in times of worry or when they need guidance. For example, if a son wants to get married, his parents may put together this ceremony in order to channel an ancestral spirit and get a blessing or advice for him to move forward. The medium will also change his clothes and channel up to 10 different gods/spirits during one ritual ceremony. (Sounds like something out of the Fordham Acting Curriculum, right?) As part of the ceremony, the family offers the gods and spirits all sorts of food, beverages, and other gifts. The medium/god incarnated blesses the gifts, and afterward all of the guests share the wares.
I'm way oversimplifying it, and probably don't have it all correct anyway. But I will say this: If you can't get behind a religion that offers its gods beer and oreos, what can you get behind?
So last week as part of my Vietnamese Culture Class, I took part in a Len Dong, which is a spirit possession ritual associated with Dao Mau, a Vietnamese Mother Goddess religion. I know. Pretty Awesome.
Without prep or explanation, my teacher led the class into a temple. The outside looked like this.
But the inside looked like this!
And there was a god! Or a medium dressed like a god! Or a medium channeling a god! Which then made him become a god!Regardless, he was dressed in white satin and sequins and was waving his torch of flaming incense dangerously close to both my head and the paper dragons suspended from the ceiling. But I needn't have been concerned: there were about 6 ten year old mediums/gods-in-training fully equipped with a tupperware dish of water to extinguish the torch once it was lobbed in their general direction. They also had t-shirts to collect the burning embers that had scattered in front of the alter/under my respectfully bare feet.
Really though, it was a pretty good time with some sweet music and stylish dancing. As I understood it from our teacher later in class, a family will enlist the spirit medium and put on such a ceremony in times of worry or when they need guidance. For example, if a son wants to get married, his parents may put together this ceremony in order to channel an ancestral spirit and get a blessing or advice for him to move forward. The medium will also change his clothes and channel up to 10 different gods/spirits during one ritual ceremony. (Sounds like something out of the Fordham Acting Curriculum, right?) As part of the ceremony, the family offers the gods and spirits all sorts of food, beverages, and other gifts. The medium/god incarnated blesses the gifts, and afterward all of the guests share the wares.
I'm way oversimplifying it, and probably don't have it all correct anyway. But I will say this: If you can't get behind a religion that offers its gods beer and oreos, what can you get behind?
The woman throwing around flames sounds a lot to me like Liz:)! Amazing! Glad you're having a good time.
ReplyDeleteIf the god is Liz, I think that means you're holding the tupperware with water! Miss you! Things are nuts, but good.
ReplyDelete