Honoring Females: Happy Mother’s Day!

While a commercially invented holiday, Mother’s Day has much significance.  I hope you all are doing something wonderful for your mother today.  Because we’re on this topic, I think it’s important to discuss the role of the female and mother in Vietnamese culture.  OneVietnam has covered many women and gender issues in numerous previous articles, and we hope to continue to hear your views on these aspects.  In this article, I will particularly focus on the matriarchal nature of Vietnamese culture.

Matriarchy and Vietnam History:

Matriarchy (or gynecocracy) refers to a gynecocentric form of society, in which the leading role is taken by the women and especially by the mothers of a community. (Reference: wiki)

In Vietnam, the role of the female in the family is very highly honored.  The strong matriarchal heritage of Vietnam dates back to early history.  It is thought that women in early Vietnam history often take leadership positions with little opposition.

The Trung Sisters and Trieu Thi Trinh are among famous women warriors that led the resistance against Chinese occupation of the country.  Trung Trac and Trung Nhi were the two Trung Sisters (also known as “Hai Ba Trung“).  Although their resistance against the Chinese Han Dynasty was short-lived, they are regarded and honored as Vietnamese heroines.  Trieu Thi Trinh is another heroine in Vietnamese history.  Regarded as the Vietnamese Joan of Arc, Lady Trieu (Ba Trieu) successful resisted the Kingdom of Wu for a brief period of time.  Due to the roles that these female leaders played in the preservation of the country, the impact that these women left made Vietnam more receptive and appreciative of the roles of women in society.

Before influences of the Chinese occupation and Confucius principles, Vietnam was a matriarchal society.  Remnants of the values of women and their leadership still remain to this very day in the home and in society.

I believe that females strongly influence occurrences in society in Vietnamese culture, as I see that my mom has much say in family issues.  At least at the level of the family unit, I observe the positive manifestation of the female roles.  What do you think?

Mother’s Day and Mua Vu Lan

As for Mother’s Day, is there such a thing in Vietnam?  As of recently, there has been an infiltration of American traditions into Vietnamese practices.  In an article by Dong Ngo at cnet, he reports the latest export of “Mother’s Day” to Vietnam.

Yet, even before the American influences, Vietnam already had a tradition called the Mua Vu Lan, celebrated on the seventh full moon of the lunar calendar.  This day is a time for the country to express their gratitude and filial piety to their parents, more particularly to mothers.

Originally a Buddhist holiday and connected to the traditions of ancestor worship, Mua Vu Lan is now celebrated nationally.  On this day, it is believed that the gates of Heaven, Hell, and the Living are opened; and souls can travel between all realms.  People often hold ceremonies to offer food, clothing, money to their family members existing in other dimensions.  Others celebrate this day by praying and honoring their parents in pagodas, donned with roses in red (if their parents are alive) or white (if their parents have passed).

Happy Mother’s Day!

At OneVietnam Network, we know that women have an extremely significant role in Vietnamese culture, history, and heritage.  For that reason, we see Mother’s Day as an immensely important day, and all our team members love our mothers very dearly.  I surely love my mothers more than words can say

We hope that all of you have a wonderful Mother’s Day with your mothers and other positive female role models in your life!

I’ll finish this article with a youtube video of one of the most famous songs in Vietnamese culture: Long Me (A Mother’s Love)