Putting money to a more charitable use

“People should not buy votive offerings [hang ma] to burn for ancestors.

Please save that money to put in the charity box,” the Buddhist monk often says in support of the program.

“Our pagoda will take the money and help the poor have a more comfortable Tet (Lunar New Year).”

Heeding the monk’s call, Buddhists donated nearly VND3.4 billion (US$206,240) and 25 tons of rice over the past 10 years to the pagoda to help street children and the needy.

The pagoda is among a large number of organizations and individuals who have supported the government’s directive.

About 165 restaurants and other wedding organizations have registered to follow the “civilized – healthy – economic wedding” model.

Another well known example of money going to charity was the funeral of Nguyen Vinh Nghiep, former chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Sponsoring Society for Poor Patients.

According to Nghiep’s dying wish in late 2007 – “A person closes his eyes to help thousands of people see” – his family used the VND600 million ($36,390) in funeral donations to give to the Society to operate on 1,200 patients who have cataract-related diseases.

It is traditional for funeral visitors to donate money in envelopes, helping pay for funeral costs and other expenses.

In addition more than 10,000 city residents have registered to donate their bodies to science.

Many retired officials and residents or their families give money collected at funerals, longevity congratulations or birthday ceremonies to support charities such as free eye surgery for poor patients and wheelchairs for the disabled.

But elsewhere in the city, some people still prefer to hold costly weddings and raucous funerals with loud music playing late into the night.

The city authorities need to extend the “civilized and economic model” of weddings and funerals to save money and improve city resident’s material and spiritual lives.

Reported by Minh Nam