Lacquer Painting ( NGŨ VỊ TIÊN CÔ )

The Vietnamese Mother Goddess worship (Tín ngưỡng thờ Mẫu Việt Nam), also commonly known as Đạo Mẫu, the worship of Thánh Mẫu (Holy Mothers), Mẫu tam phủ (Three Realms Mother Goddesses), and Mẫu tứ phủ (Four Realms Mother Goddesses), is quite prevalent and has deep historical and social origins. Although all involve the veneration of female deities, there are distinctions between the worship of female spirits, Holy Mothers, Holy Maidens, and the Mother Goddesses of the Three and Four Realms.

Vietnamese Mother Goddess worship is an indigenous belief system that takes the veneration of the Mother (Mẫu) as its central figure, with her powers of creation, protection, and sheltering of humankind. It is a belief system that has been gendered, taking the form of the Mother, and it is a place where Vietnamese women have placed their hopes for liberation from the prejudices and constraints of feudal Confucian society.