Vietnam’s ‘Market of the Dead’ opens once a year at Tet
Saturday, February 05, 2022, 15:46 GMT+7
Many people from Hanoi and the northern provinces of Bac Giang and Bac Ninh gravitated on Friday night to Yin Yang Market, also known as the Market of the Dead, in Bac Ninh as temperatures dropped to 10 degrees Celsius in northern Vietnam.
The market opens only once a year in the late afternoon of the fourth day of a lunar year and ends early the next morning in O Village, now the Xuan O neighborhood in Vo Cuong Ward under Bac Ninh City.
Legend has it that the market was a place where dead people met their living friends and relatives, according to Nguyen Xuan Hung, head of the Xuan O neighborhood.
Living people would burn incense, votive paper, candles or oil lamps to connect with the afterlife, he added.
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| People burn votive paper at the Yin Yang market in Bac Ninh Province, Vietnam on February 4, 2022. Photo: Ha Quan / Tuoi Tre |
“The Yin Yang market is a chance for living people to pray to the dead for a peaceful life,” Hung said.
“The market is also a place to ‘buy luck and sell bad luck."'
Hung said that people come to the market to buy agricultural products to wish for luck but no one bargains there.
“At the market, buyers do not bargain, sellers do not count the money paid by the buyers,” he said.
At the venue, sellers use candles to light up their booths.
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| A booth is lit up with a candle at the Yin Yang market in Bac Ninh Province, Vietnam on February 4, 2022. Photo: Ha Quan / Tuoi Tre |
After midnight, the market became less crowded, and market-goers sat down for some sips of water, treated each other to some pieces of betel, and listened to Quan Ho Bac Ninh (Bac Ninh folk love duets).
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| People gather for 'Quan Ho Bac Ninh' (Bac Ninh folk love duets) as the Yin Yang market in Bac Ninh Province, Vietnam became less crowded on February 4, 2022. Photo: Ha Quan / Tuoi Tre |
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| Bowls of porridge for dead people are placed in the middle of the Yin Yang market in Bac Ninh Province, Vietnam on February 4, 2022. Photo: Ha Quan / Tuoi Tre |
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| A market-goer tries wine made from sticky rice at the Yin Yang market in Bac Ninh Province, Vietnam on February 4, 2022. Photo: Ha Quan / Tuoi Tre |
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