VietNamNet Bridge – For the first time Vietnamese can buy their graves on installments. The subject for this service is… members of elderly associations.
On the morning of October 26, the Hanoi Association of the Elderly held a meeting to inform its members of a preferential program of the Lac Hong Vien cemetery park in Hoa Binh province for the elderly.

Association members were surprised of the first-ever service offered in Vietnam: buying graves for themselves in hire-purchase. The cemetery’s representative announced that 500 graves at the cemetery would be solved at soft prices for 500 first old people who registered from October 25, 2011, to January 15, 2012.

To buy a grave in installments, customers must satisfy the following conditions: really need to buy it, being certified as a member of the Hanoi Association of the Elderly, filling a grave buying application form, having a copy of their ID card and family record book.

The first 500 elder people who register to buy will have to pay half of the sum and pay in installments the second half, with VND1 million ($50) per month until the debt is paid out. Each customer can buy up to two single graves or a pair grave. The number of graves is limited.

The cemetery’s representative said that this is a serious project which meets the requirement of the elderly in Vietnam, particularly those who live in cities, where cemeteries are being narrowed.

Many elder people who attended the meeting agreed, though they were surprised at this project.

Mr. Do Huy Phuc, 72, from Thanh Xuan district, said that death is the laws that anyone will have to experience. Vietnamese often avoid mentioning death but now cemeteries are being narrowed to devote land for the living, buying land in cemeteries in advance is a serious matter for many families.

Mr. Pham Van Ngoc, 75, said: “Funeral observances are the worry of many elder people like me. In the time that an inch of soil is an inch of gold, I think that this service is necessary though it may be not accepted by some people.”

Historian Duong Trung Quoc, historical and spiritual advisor of Lac Hong Vien Cemetery Park, said he was not surprised at this service. “It’s time for the modern society to consider cemeteries as part of construction planning and administrative management. Asian people often dodge to mention death but it is a serious and important issue and part of the life.”

Buying graves in installments may become an expected service of many elder people who have no relatives.

Kien Trung