During a Kinh funeral, close friends or distant kin carry the coffin from the house of the deceased; mourning relatives follow behind. John Kleinen

If life is a journey, passage rites—initiations, weddings and funerals—are the way stations that signal transitions from one stage to the next. In Vietnam as elsewhere, these ceremonies are predictable events in the steady unfolding of a life, as inevitable as the change of seasons.

In their details, these ceremonies vary from place to place and ethnic group to ethnic group. Yet often they share a common thread: a physical journey echoes the spiritual transition underway. An initiate inches up a ladder towards heaven; a bride leaves her girlhood behind and walks solemnly toward her future husband’s home; the living usher the dead to the netherworld with elaborate processions of mourning. Whatever the occasion and wherever the place, passage rites in Vietnam affirm community bonds and common beliefs.