Every year, Tet is celebrated on the first days of the first lunar month throughout Vietnam and in other countries where Vietnamese people live. During the festival, family members gather together, visit relatives, give good wishes and lucky money to others, and worship ancestors.
For Vietnamese people, Tet or the Lunar New Year is very important and sacred, and anticipated by many, especially those who work away from home and want to return to spend time with their families and enjoy the joy of reunions.
In modern society, there have been many changes, including in the way of celebrating Tet as well as the practices during this festival. However, there is one thing that never changes, which is the psychology of keeping traditional Vietnamese values during Tet. Because above all, Tet itself is a return to one’s roots.
Sacred customs
Depending on each region or according to different beliefs, religions and customs, traditional Tet in each locality also has different features. However, Tet customs are generally divided into three periods, including: the days before the new year, New Year’s Eve, and the first days of the new year.
Outstanding activities in the festival include worshipping “Ong Cong, Ong Tao” (Land Genie and Kitchen Gods), wrapping banh chung (square glutinous rice cake) and banh tet (cylindrical sticky rice cake). Tet is also a time to display ornamental plants such as peach and apricot blossoms and kumquat, offering a tray of five fruits, visiting ancestors’ tombs, New Year’s Eve worship, visiting relatives, giving lucky money, and going to pagodas. These sacred customs are all aimed at praying for goodness, luck, success and health in the new year.
In addition, Vietnamese people celebrate Tet with joyful and healthy activities such as wrestling, cloth ball throwing, swinging, boat racing, buffalo fighting and horse racing.
The most sacred moment is New Year’s Eve when family members gather to welcome the new year, talk about the gains and losses of the past year and discusses how to do business to make the coming year better. In addition, Vietnamese people have the custom of first footing on New Year’s Eve.
The custom of delivering wishes and celebrating the beginning of the year has appeared for a long time. On the morning of the first day of the new year, family members wear new clothes and gather to deliver the best wishes and lucky money to the others.
Tastes of Tet
Referring to Tet, it is impossible not to mention other activities held around Tet such as folk games, Tet markets, and flower markets.
For Vietnamese people, Tet usually takes place on three main days, but a week before that, people are busy shopping for Tet. The typical flower that people in the northern and central regions celebrate Tet with is peach blossom, while southerners prefer apricot blossom.
Five-fruit tray is also an indispensable decoration of Vietnamese people. There is also a difference between the North and the South. Because, the typical five-fruit tray of northern people is pomelo, banana, mango, tangerine and chili. In the South, locals often choose custard apple, fig, coconut, papaya and mango.
Besides, Vietnamese people often visit scenic spots, temples and pagodas during Tet. Festivals associated with famous sacred temples and pagodas attract the participation of a large number of Buddhists and visitors from all over the country who come to pray for peace and prosperity in the new year.
With the cultural diversity of communities, the Lunar New Year is one of Vietnamese people’s leading cultural heritage, worthy of being preserved, promoted and developed.
In the trend of globalisation and international integration, preserving and cherishing the good values of the traditional Tet holiday has contributed to promoting national cultural identity, making all Vietnamese people love their homeland more, be more closely attached to their family and community, and live more responsibly with the past, the present and the future.
And every time the cultural beauty of the traditional Tet is spread in the soul of every Vietnamese person, it will become a great endogenous resource, contributing to promoting the country’s sustainable development.
Tet has many special meanings, and beautiful customs during this festival that represent cultural and civilised traditions to be respectfully preserved and promoted by future generations, especially during the international integration process, because they are the soul and unique identity of the Vietnamese people./.
