Tips for TET holiday in Viet Nam

Tips for TET holiday in Viet Nam

Tết Nguyên Đán, more commonly known by its shortened name Tết, is the most important and popular holiday and festival in Vietnam. 

Đây là một chủ đề hay mà chúng ta thường bị bí từ khi dịch sang tiếng Anh những từ ngữ rất quen thuộc. Chúng ta cùng đọc và kiểm tra những từ đó nhé!

 TET is an occasion for family reunions.

Bài viết lấy từ nguồn: Nguyễn Bình Vĩ, blog.dragonholding.nl và Tâm Bùi, vietnamtravelblog.org. Thanks you very much.

It is the Vietnamese New Year marking the arrival of spring based on the Lunar calendar, a lunisolar calendar. The name Tết Nguyên Đán is Sino-Vietnamese for Feast of the First Morning. It is a great occasion for families’ members to gather together and enjoy the best relaxing time in the year. The main days of festival are the days from Dec 30^th to Jan 3^rd Lunar Year.

Tết is also an occasion for pilgrims and family reunions. During Tết, Vietnamese visit their relatives and temples, forgetting about the troubles of the past year and hoping for a better upcoming year. They consider Tết to be the first day of spring and the festival is often called Hội xuân (spring festival).

Decorations

Traditionally, each family displays “Cây nêu”, 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.

 A traditional family in TET holiday with "Cây nêu", "Hoa mai".

At Tết every house is usually decorated by hoa mai – Ochna integerrima (in the central and southern parts of Vietnam) or hoa đào – peach flower (in the northern part of Vietnam) or hoa ban (in mountain areas). In the north, some people (especially the elite in the past) also decorate their house with a Prunus mume tree (also called mai in Vietnamese, but referring to a totally different species from Ochna integerrima). In the north or central, the kumquat tree is a popular decoration for the living room during Tết. Its many fruits symbolize the fertility and fruitfulness that the family hopes for in the coming year.
Vietnamese people also decorate their homes with bonsai and flower plants such as chrysanthemum (hoa cúc), marigold (vạn thọ) symbolizing longevity, mào gà in Southern Vietnam and paperwhite flower (thủy tiên), lavender (viôlét), hoa bướm in Northern Vietnam. In the past, there was a tradition that old people tried to make their paperwhite flowers blossom right the watch-night time. They also hung up Dong Ho Paintings and thư pháp (calligraphy pictures).

Food

In Vietnamese language, to celebrate Tết is to ăn Tết, literally meaning “Tết eating”, showing the importance of food in its celebration. Some of the food is also eaten year-round, while other dishes are only eaten during Tết. Also, some of the food is vegetarian since it is believed to be good luck to eat vegetarian on Tết. Some traditional food on Tết are:

TET's meal.

 • “Bánh chưng” and “Bánh dầy”: essentially tightly packed sticky rice with meat or bean fillings wrapped in Dong (Phrynium placentarium) leaves. When this leaves is unavailable, banana leaves can be used as a subtitute. Bánh chưng (rectangular) and bánh dầy (circular) are symbolically connected with Tết and are essential in any Tết celebration. Preparation is time-consuming, and can take days to cook. The story of their origins and their connection with Tết is often recounted to children while cooking them overnight.
• “Dưa Hành”: pickled onion and pickled cabbage.
• “Củ Kiệu”: pickled small leeks.
• “Xôi”: sticky steam rice in red colors.
• “Gà”: a boiled-chiken with a rose in it’s mouth.
• “Mứt”: These dried candied fruits are rarely eaten at any time besides Tết.
• “Hạt Dưa”: roasted watermelon seeds, also eaten during Tết.


Greeting
The traditional greetings are “Chúc mừng năm mới” and “Cung chúc tân xuân” (Happy New Year). People also wish each other prosperity and luck. Common wishes for Tết include:
• Sống lâu trăm tuổi (Live up to 100 years): used by children for elders. Traditionally, everyone is one year older on Tết, so children would wish their grandparents health and longevity in exchange for mừng tuổi or lì xì
• An khang thịnh vượng (Security, good health, and prosperity)
• Vạn sự như ý (May a myriad things go according to your will)
• Sức khoẻ dồi dào (Plenty of health)
• Cung hỉ phát tài (Congratulations and be prosperous)
• Tiền vô như nước (May money flow in like water in the river): used informally

DOs

• Smile. During Tet holiday, people should keep themselves from getting angry or depressed and have beaming smile on their face for a happy new year.

• Pay all the debts before Tet. It is believed that people should never begin a new year with debts and borrowed things, otherwise they would get stuck with debts in all that year. So, Vietnamese people often pay off their debts and return all stuffs that they have borrowed from others.

• Buy and wear new clothes. Tet is time to say good bye to the past year and welcome a new year with new luck, new success. Hence, people often wear new and beautiful outfits in these day for a new start in the New Year. The street in Tet holiday is full with colorful costume, ao dai is also a common outfit. It is believed that colorful bright colors like red, yellow can bring happiness and prosperity to people for the upcoming year.
  

• Exchange gift. This is a popular custom in Tet holiday, which is used by members in a family or people at work (employees and boss). The younger members who are able to earn their own money often give gift to their elders to express gratitude and love toward them.  The employees give gift to their boss to enhance the relationships.
  

• Give lucky money. Giving lucky money is the popular custom in the main days of Tet holiday. Adults who have already got married and have income are supposed to give the children lucky money” (tiền mừng tuổi, lì xì) and best wishes when visiting other’s homes.

DON’T

• Show up or "Xông đất". On the first day of the New Year, the first person who shows up at someone’s house will bring to the family all the characteristic of that person in that year. Hence, the home owner has to carefully choose an appropriate person to be the first person showing up in their home. It is necessary to remember that don’t show up at anyone’s house if you haven’t been invited in advance by the house owner. According to eastern culture, men is chosen to be the person who bring the lucky in the New Year.

• Argue and say unlucky things. People always greet each other by saying Happy New Year with big smile in Tet holiday. Don’t say bad things like death in Tet. In addition, people should avoid having ugly arguments with others. Otherwise, you will encounter unlucky things all year.

• Sweep house. Vietnamese people often avoid sweeping the house or emptying the trash bin especially on the first day of the New Year because doing that will make your money and luck out of your home.

VISIT FORTUNE TELLER
People can also visit fortune tellers, in temples and in the streets, to have their fortunes told. You must know your zodiac sign and the star you were born under to have your fortune read. Whether the fortunes are taken seriously depends entirely on the person receiving the fortune and the reputation of the fortune teller.

"Xem bói" - fortune telling

 Còn nhiều từ ngữ về tết lắm, đốt tiền vàng ~ Burning Votive Paper Money, cúng giỗ tổ tiên ~ Donating ancestors... các bạn bổ sung cùng mình nhé!!