Tết Holiday – Vietnam Traditional Lunar New Year

Tet Nguyen Dan, more commonly known by its shortened name Tet, is the most important and popular holiday and festival in Vietnam. It is the Vietnamese New Year marking the arrival of spring based on the Lunar calendar. The name Tet Nguyen Dan is Sino-Vietnamese for Feast of the First Morning.

The dates of the Lunar New Year differ every year but it generally takes place around late January or February. Because of the fact that Vietnamese families are so close-knitted, Tet Holiday is considered the best occasion for family members to return home and get together.

During Tet, Vietnamese spend time shopping for the New Year, go to Pagodas and Temples. The items of shopping range from food to clothing to decorations for the house. The Vietnamese believe that Tet Holiday is an occasion to enjoy life after a full hard-working year, thus people forget their struggles and focus on making the celebration as festive as possible. Due to the high regard in which people hold it, Tết, as often as not, is consumed with unique, distinctive colors and flavors. Let’s take a look at some traditions and customs typical of this special holiday in Vietnam.

1. Food

Sticky square cake

Sticky square cake is a food made from glutinous rice, mung bean and pork, added with many other ingredients. Sticky square cake is covered by green leaves (usually dong leaves) and symbolizes the Earth, invented by the prince Lang Liêu from Hùng King dynasty. Besides traditional reason, Sticky square cake is chosen as the main food for Tết holiday because of it can last long for days in Vietnamese weather (Banh Chung can survive at room temperature for nearly 1 month).

Vietnamese sausage

Vietnamese ham/sausage is another traditional food in Tết holiday, and usually served with sticky rice and sticky square cake. Lean pork paste is different from Vietnamese pork sausage since Lean pork paste is boiled and Vietnamese pork sausage is deep-fried. Vietnamese pork sausage is also made of lean pork and ingredients, but Vietnamese pork sausage is not wrapped by leaves and boiled but deep-fried in oil.

Braised Pork Belly with Duck Egg

This dish is more popularly enjoyed in the South than in the North, however, no one can deny the irresistible aroma, flavor and amazing compatibility of this dish with a bowl of steaming rice. The Pork Belly and Egg is cooked with coconut juice and fish sauce until it becomes tender and absorb all those amazing flavors. The dish is so universal and easy to make that it has become one of the most popular dishes served during Tet Holiday.

Sticky rice

Sticky rice is also a very important part of Tet holiday in Vietnam, along with sticky square cake, sticky rice is the main staple foods for Tet holiday. Sticky rice can be seen in many forms: sticky rice with peanuts, sticky rice with mung bean, sticky rice with special “gac” fruit. Among these types, sticky rice with special “gac” fruit is favorite the most by people because of its special red color – symbolizes luck and new achievement for the New Year.

Jam

Tet jam is not a food to serve in a meal during Tet holiday, but more like a snack to welcome guests in this special period. This once-in-year mix of snacks is very large in variety, with so many tastes: ginger, carrot, coconut, pineapple, pumpkin, lotus seed, star fruit, etc.

2. Traditional customs 

Even though many Vietnamese traditions are based on old cultural beliefs that may strike some as a little superstitious, families believe that their activities during Tet must involve happiness, joy, and good luck. Below are some of the popular, long-standing Tết traditional customs that have stood the test of time from generation to generation. 

Lucky money

The first day of Tet is reserved for the nuclear family. Children receive a red envelope containing money from their elders. This tradition is called happy new age in the north and giving money in the south. Usually, children wear their new clothes and give their elders the traditional Tet greetings before receiving the money.

The first person/people to visit someone’s home during the Lunar New Year

Since the Vietnamese believe that the first visitor a family receives in the year determines their fortune for the entire year, people never enter any house on the first day without being invited first. The act of being the first person to enter a house on Tết is called xong dat, xong nha or dap dat, which is one of the most important rituals during Tet. According to Vietnamese tradition, if good things come to the family on the first day of the lunar New Year, the entire following year will also be full of blessings. Usually, a person of good temper, morality, and success will be the lucky sign for the host family and be invited first into the house.

During subsequent days, people visit relatives and friends. Traditionally but not strictly, the second and even painting their home in anticipation of spring, settle old debts and disputes, and pledge to behave nicely and work hard in the new year.

3. Decorations

Traditionally, each family displays “Cay neu”, an artificial New Year Tree consisting of a bamboo pole 5 to 6 m long. The top end is usually decorated with many objects, depending on the locality, including good luck charms, origami fish, cactus branches, etc.

At Tet every house is usually decorated by hoa mai – Ochna integerrima (in the central and southern parts of Vietnam) or hoa dao – peach flower (in the northern part of Vietnam) or hoa ban (in mountain areas). In the north or central, the kumquat tree is a popular decoration for the living room during Tet. Its bright orange-colored fruits represent the fertility and fruitfulness that the family hopes for in the coming year.

Source: https://studentexchange.vn/tet-traditions-vietnam-lunar-new-year/