Why is the 12th lunar month called December?

According to Professor Nguyen Tai Can in the textbook History of Vietnamese Phonetics, the word December originates from the two words "lap nguyet" which Vietnamese people misread from "lap" to "chap".

The word “Lap” in Chinese means the year-end worship ceremony (the 12th lunar month). Vietnam is influenced by Chinese culture, so this month is also called the twelfth month. The twelfth month is also associated with worship rituals and the tomb-sweeping ceremony.

In Chinese, "lap" also means New Year's Eve ceremony, this meaning is also related to the above custom.

The Tomb Sweeping Ceremony is an occasion for Vietnamese people to visit their ancestors’ graves, clean their graves and invite their ancestors to celebrate Tet with their families. This is also an opportunity for families to teach their descendants about the role and merits of their ancestors, carrying the profound cultural meaning of “remembering the source of water when drinking”. The custom of Tomb Sweeping has been maintained from generation to generation and has become a beautiful feature in the Lunar New Year customs of Vietnamese people.

December is the month when our ancestors reminded each other the most about being careful to avoid theft. At the end of the year, everyone is tired and busy, so it is easy to lose vigilance and be careless. There are often many goods, money, and belongings in the house that attract thieves. Thieves take advantage of this time to strike.

In addition to preventing theft, another issue that needs to be addressed is fire. In the dry winter months, people cook more, and parties are more likely to be careless. If you are not careful and do not pay attention to small sparks, a fire can break out, and your house and property can be burned down. In fact, there have been many house fires and market fires that occurred during the last days of the lunar year.

Thus, the month of the bile means the month of caution, the month of being alert, careful, avoiding being messy and arbitrary because the consequences can be very serious.

According to cultural researchers, “cu mat” in Chinese means control (cu is control, mat is careful). December is called “cu mat month” to remind people to be careful in everything, especially protecting property, preventing fires and accidents at the end of the year.

According to the article “The role of ancestor worship in Vietnam today” by Associate Professor, Dr. Do Thi Hoa Hoi, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, the concept of ancestor worship is a concept conveyed in the worship of posterity, towards the existence of ancestors' souls and establishing a connection between the dead and the living (sharing the same bloodline).

According to the patriarchal vertical axis, ancestor worship is a continuous connection between generations: grandparents - parents - oneself. Each person must be responsible for worshiping the four previous generations: great-grandfather, great-grandfather, great-grandfather, and father (great-grandfather, great-grandfather, grandfather, father) and they also believe that in turn they will receive offerings from the descendants of the next four generations.

The old Hong Duc Code also clearly stipulates that descendants must worship their ancestors for 5 generations (themselves as children, counting back 4 generations: Father, mother, grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents)...