Funeral-home owner rides coffin through streets in birthday, drawing police probe

A funeral-themed birthday party in southern Vietnam has sparked public backlash and a police investigation after revelers paraded a coffin carrying living people through the streets.

Over the weekend, authorities in Can Tho City's Soc Trang Ward announced they had instructed police to investigate the group responsible for organizing the event. The probe was launched following the rapid circulation of videos on social media showing the party staged to resemble a traditional funeral.

Authorities have initially determined that the gathering, which took place on the evening of June 4, was hosted by a local coffin shop owner.

A still image from a video circulating online shows a group of people carrying a coffin along a street in Soc Trang Ward, Can Tho, for a birthday party on June 4, 2026.

Several short videos posted on Facebook on June 6 depicted a nighttime celebration attended by a large crowd under a tent on Le Duan Street.

The event featured a coffin, drums, a brass band, a condolence table, a memorial portrait, and attendees dressed in mourning attire. During the cake-cutting ceremony, the band played traditional funeral music while joss paper was burned.

Footage showed three individuals, two men and one woman, taking turns lying inside the coffin as part of the festivities. At one point, a group of attendees carried the coffin into the middle of the street and danced to loud music.

A man sits inside a coffin during a birthday party in Can Tho City as seen in a video circulating online.

This is not the first time a coffin-related public stunt has drawn legal action in Vietnam.

In March last year, Ho Chi Minh City authorities investigated a case where a group of men carried a coffin back and forth in front of the iconic Ben Thanh Market to advertise a clothing shop's website.

In February, a court sentenced the clothing shop owner, who conceived the idea, rented the coffin, and hired four men to carry it, to two years and nine months in jail for "causing public disorder."

Six other defendants involved in that promotional stunt received sentences ranging from two years of suspended imprisonment to two years in prison.