This article examines the changing dynamics of ritual engagements with the ‘exceptional dead’ in northern Vietnam. Since its inception, the socialist state has attempted to control which exceptional dead its citizenry can ritually engage in order to advance revolutionary goals. Although it was successful in this effort for several decades, since the early 1990s both the state and the population have begun ritually engaging a wider number of exceptional dead. This article examines the implications of this change with regard to political legitimation, access to sacred space and the changing role of the exceptional dead in people's lives.