Death anniversary

It is a custom in several Asian cultures, including Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, China, Georgia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Myanmar, Iran, Israel, Japan, Bangladesh, Korea, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, as well as in other places with significant overseas Chinese, Japanese, Jewish, Korean, and Vietnamese populations, to observe the anniversary on which a family member or other significant individual died.

This type of ceremony dates back thousands of years in China (at least to the Shang dynasty) and historically involved making sacrifices to the spirits of one's ancestors.

According to Nepali and Indian texts, a soul has to wander about in the various worlds after death and has to suffer a lot due to past karmas.

For such occasions, the women of the family traditionally prepare an elaborate set of dishes, including tteok, jeon, jeok, and so forth.

[5] After babang luksa, the mourners may once again return to their normal dress, although depending on circumstances, some may opt to wear their mourning attire for longer periods.

Although a giỗ is usually a private ceremony attended only by family members (and occasionally also close friends), some are commemorated by large segments of the population.

The commemoration of the Hùng Kings - who were instrumental in founding the first Vietnamese kingdom in Vietnam's remote past, and of the Trưng Sisters are widely participated.

In Central Vietnam, small stuffed glutinous rice flour balls wrapped in leaves called bánh ít are such a dish.

In addition to this, pious donors made endowments to religious institutions to commemorate them in an annual mass on anniversaries of their deaths.

In order to provide this service, monasteries and collegiate churches wrote the names of the donors down in calendrical registers called anniversary books.

Observant Jews commemorate the yahrtzeit (Yiddish: יאָרצײַט, romanized: yortsayt) of the death of parents, siblings, spouses, or children[11] according to the Hebrew calendar.