Death in the Street & Chicken-Eating Ghosts

The Hungry Ghost is a Buddhist concept that is common to the beliefs and cultures of many Asian countries, including Vietnam. The Hungry Ghost is the spirit of someone who died in unsatisfied or insatiable need. This could be someone who died of starvation or thirst, but it could also be the spirit of someone who suffered impossible hunger, like addiction or unrequited love. In death, they wander restlessly, endlessly seeking the sustenance they couldn’t get in life. In Asian art, the Hungry Ghost is often depicted as a creature with a huge empty belly and tiny constricted throat, so that each swallow causes great pain.

In traditional Vietnamese culture, ancestor worship is an extremely important part of the belief system. You continue to respect and serve your parents, grandparents and other long after they die, and in return, they bring you prosperity and blessings. Every home has a lovingly maintained ancestor altar, where they make daily offerings to the ancestors.

In addition, most homes have a “street side” altar, a smaller altar or spirit house in the garden or by the front door, where they can make offerings to spirits who are not part of the family, including wandering or hungry ghosts. Unhappy spirits, or those who don’t receive proper respect, can cause terrible bad luck. One of the worst things that can happen is “death in the street,” which means death away from home and family, especially violent death.

It is even worse if a person doesn’t receive proper burial. People who die away from homes, people who die violent deaths and do not receive proper burials and ancestor worship become restless, unhappy, often vengeful ghosts who can wreak havoc on an entire community. Vietnam was at war for hundreds of years. From the American War alone, there are about 30,000 US servicemen still missing, and more than 300,000 Vietnamese servicemen. That doesn’t include the thousands of civilians who died. That’s a lot of angry ghosts wandering the countryside.

There are many stories about hauntings and possessions. One of my favorites is about a house haunted by the ghost of an American soldier, a boy from Tennessee. The family’s grandmother, a 75-year-old woman who had never left Vietnam and spoke no English, suddenly started acting strangely. The family brought in a medium, who told them that the grandmother was possessed by this ghost. In perfect, Southern-inflected English, the grandmother demanded fried chicken and biscuits. When they provided this meal, the Tennessee ghost, speaking through the grandmother, said thank you and left the house. The family was never bothered again.

In this country that has been so torn apart by war, they have found a way to appease the many ghosts who haunt them. They make offerings to all the strange spirits, the American and Vietnamese soldiers who died in battle, and to the civilian victims of bombs and massacres and the horrors of war. The countryside is filled with small shrines, some as simple as a soda bottle holding a few sticks of incense. People even stop in the street to burn a votive or offering. These ghosts and their stories become part of a family, part of a community. After so much pain and loss, the culture heals itself by accepting and healing the spirits of everyone who suffered, even those who caused the greatest pain.

A woman in the street, burning votive offerings to restless spirits