Definition

1. Noun:
   • The forty-ninth day after a person's death: A specific day in the traditional Vietnamese cycle of post-funeral ceremonies and mourning rituals. It marks the end of a 49-day period believed to be significant for the soul's journey.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • Gia đình tổ chức lễ tứ cửu cho ông nội. (The family held the forty-ninth-day ceremony for their grandfather.)
  • Theo phong tục, lễ cúng tứ cửu rất quan trọng. (According to tradition, the offering ceremony on the forty-ninth day is very important.)

Advanced Usage

• The term is almost exclusively used in the context of death anniversary rituals and ancestral worship. It is a fixed point in a sequence of ceremonies that may include (the seventh-day ceremony) and (the one-hundredth-day ceremony).

Variants and Related Words

• Lễ tứ cửu (n): The ceremony or ritual held on the forty-ninth day.

  • Lễ tứ cửu được tiến hành tại gia. (The forty-ninth-day ceremony is conducted at home.)

• Cúng tứ cửu (v): To make offerings on the forty-ninth day.

  • Họ cúng tứ cửu đầy đủ. (They performed the forty-ninth-day offerings fully.)

Synonyms

• 49th-day ceremony: The ritual observance.
• Forty-ninth-day observance: The act of commemorating this day.

Cultural Note

• "Tứ cửu" is a Sino-Vietnamese compound: (四) means "four" and (九) means "nine," referring to 7 x 7 = 49 days. It reflects the Buddhist-influenced belief that the soul undergoes transitions every seven days for 49 days after death.