Today we'll talk about Vietnamese fertility rituals. Every culture has fertility rituals that aim to help a woman conceive a child. A ritual will help to focus your energy and attention to the act of conception and prepare your mind and spirit for pregnancy.
As with most rituals, the Vietnamese fertility ritual begins with prayers to the Gods. One common Goddess associated with fertility and childbirth is Lieu Hanh, one of the Four Immortals and the main figure in the mother Goddess cult called Dao Mau.
In the town of Huong Tich of Ha-dong province, now in North Vietnam, there is a grotto which has a number of vaguely human-shaped rocks called "Young Girls' and Young Boys' Rocks". After paying proper devotions, the supplicant woman chooses one of these "children of Buddha" and caresses it with exhortations to follow her home. She then goes home convinced that "Buddha's Child" is accompanying her, and in attempts to please it, she buys both sweets and toys, and will even pay double bus fare so that "it" can ride beside her. From that day forward, a place for "it" is made at the family table, with a cradle being prepared at night until the day when the "invisible visitor" finally decides to become a member of the family. Such a child is referred to as a "prayed-for child" because he is an answer to fervent prayer and the parents tend to spoil it. The "Buddha's Child" could be associated with the idea that our children's spirits are waiting to be born. Our job, as mothers, is to usher this spirit child into the physical realm. The Vietnamese prepare their homes and their hearts for the impending arrival of their child into physical reality.
Many of us Westerners do something similar in setting up the nursery, but the Vietnamese take it one step further by assuming that the child's spirit is visiting the family until it decides to be born.
"HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS RITUAL? DO YOU BELIEVE YOUR CHILD'S SPIRIT ACCOMPANIES YOU UNTIL IT IS BORN INTO THE PHYSICAL PLANE? "
"The Religions of South Vietnam in Faith and Fact", US Navy, Bureau of Naval Personnel, Chaplains Division [1967]