September 15, 2020
Vien Nguyen, PIVOT member

This year’s Lễ Vu Lan was like no other. This most beloved Buddhist celebration of the year is a time of remembrance of parents and ancestors. My mother and I drove to her chùa to visit the nuns and receive gifts of food. We greeted the nuns from the other side of the screen door and bowed with clasped hands, smiling and exchanging Mô Phật, the universal Buddhist greeting. There was no incense filled room crowded with children and young people pinning red, pink and white roses on the lapels and áo dài of their elders. But this year, like all other years since my grandmother passed away sixteen years ago, my mom and I reminisced about her mother.