[Travel to Vietnam] TET - Vietnamese Lunar New Year
Tet has become so familiar to the Vietnamese that when Spring arrives. The Vietnamese, wherever they may be, are all thrilled and excited with the advent of Tet, and they feel an immense nostalgia, wishing to come back to their homeland for a family reunion and a taste of the particular flavors of the Vietnamese festivities. Although officially a three-day affair, festivities may continue for a week or more with every effort made to indulge in eating, drinking, and enjoyable social activities. It is also a time for family reunions, and for paying respect to ancestors and the elders. Gifts of food are made to friends, neighbors and relatives in the days before Tet.
This scared Festival sometimes between late January or early February (depend on Lunar Calendar )
and Tet has become so familiar to the Vietnamese that when Spring
arrives. The Vietnamese, wherever they may be, are all thrilled and
excited with the advent of Tet, and they feel an immense nostalgia,
wishing to come back to their homeland for a family reunion and a taste
of the particular flavors of the Vietnamese festivities. Although
officially a three-day affair, festivities may continue for a week or
more with every effort made to indulge in eating, drinking, and
enjoyable social activities. It is also a time for family reunions, and
for paying respect to ancestors and the elders. Gifts of food are made
to friends, neighbors and relatives in the days before Tet.
The Tet of the New Year is, above all, is an opportunity for the
household genies to meet, those who have helped during the year, namely
the Craft Creator, the Land Genie and the Kitchen God. Tet is also an
opportunity to invite and welcome deceased ancestors back for a family
reunion with their descendants to join the family's Tet celebrations.
Finally, Tet is a good opportunity for family members to meet. This
custom has become sacred and secular and, therefore, no matter where
they are or whatever the circumstances, family members find ways to come
back to meet their loved ones, gather for a dinner of traditional foods
like "Bánh Chưng" (a square cake made of sticky rice stuffed with
beans and pork), "Măng" (a soup of boiled bamboo shoots and flied pork)
and "Xôi Gấc" (orange sticky rice). This is followed by a visit to the
local pagodas.
Peach Flower in the North
Everyone is in a rush to get a haircut, buy new clothes, spruce up
their homes, visit friends, settle outstanding debts, and stock up on
traditional Tet delicacies. Businesses hang festive red banners which
read "Chuc Mung Nam Moi" (Happy New Year) and city streets are fes¬toned
with colored lights. Stalls spring up all over town to sell Mut
(candied fruits and jams), traditional cakes, and fresh fruit and
flowers. Certain markets sell nothing but cone-shaped kumquat bushes.
Others sell flowering peach trees, symbols of life and good fortune
which people bring into their homes to celebrate the coming of spring.
As vendors pour into the City with peach trees strapped to their
bicycles, the streets look like moving pink forests.
Shopping for Tet
The "five-fruit tray" on the ancestral altar during the Tet Holidays
symbolizes the admiration and gratitude of the Vietnamese to Heaven and
Earth and their ancestors, and demonstrates their aspiration for a life
of plenty. Legend said alot of theories but in a simpler way, the five
fruits represent the quintessence that Heaven and Earth bless humans.
This is one of the general perceptions of life of the Vietnamese, which
is "When taking fruit, you should think of the grower".
Mam ngu qua - Five fruit tray Coming to
Vietnam during
the season of the Tet festival, the visitor is engulfed in an ocean of
colorful flowers. Visiting flower shows, contemplating the buds and
blooms, and purchasing blossoms represents one of the distinct
Vietnamese cultural characteristics. The peach (
in the North ) and the apricot blossoms
(in the South)
are symbols of the Vietnamese Tet. The warm pink of the peach could
very well match the dry cold of the North, but the hot South seems to be
flourishing in the riot of the yellow of the apricot. The mandarin is
symbolic of good fortune and, therefore, people tend to choose the
little plants laden with fruit, big and orange, and verdant leaves for a
longer display.
Apricot Flower in the South
The Giao Thua is the most sacred point of time, the passage from the
old to the New Year. It is popularly believed that in Heaven there are
twelve Highnesses in charge of monitoring and controlling the affairs on
earth, each of them taking charge of one year. The Giao Thua is the
moment of seeing off the old chieftain upon the conclusion of his term
and welcoming in the new one upon his assumption of office. For this
reason, every home makes offerings in the open air to pray for a good
new year.
Parallel sentences in Tet
After the Giao Thua is the start of the New Year with many customs and
practices, amusements and entertainment, all of a distinct Vietnamese
folk culture. If you have an opportunity to visit Vietnam during the Tet
Holidays and to welcome the Tet Festivities, together with the
Vietnamese people, you will surely be profoundly impressed by the
distinct traditional culture that is rich in national identity.
Food specialties for TET 
Food specialities for Tet
On the last day of the old year, the preparation of food to offer to
the ancestors is of special significance. Dishes to offer to the
ancestors differ in the Northern, Central and Southern parts of the
country, depending on their respective weather conditions at the time
and on different local agricultural products available. What is common
in all regions of the country during Tet holidays are the varieties of
soups, fried, boiled, or stewed dishes, meat, fish, vegetable... The
foods that the Vietnamese eat at Tet are varied and diverse. What they
have in common is that the people throughout the country all want to
have the best and the most beautiful looking food on this occasion to
offer their ancestors and to treat their friends and guests.
Banh Chung, Mut, Banh Day
Vietnamese is waiting for a New Year 2009 which is considered to be a
water buffalo in the Vietnamese zodiac. The Tet atmosphere is
overwhelmed on streets with characteristic peach and apricot flower, red
parallel sentences, "mut" (candied fruits and jams)...; happy children
are worn with new clothes; adults are hurry in decorating and buy things
for the special holiday... Some want to go abroad or come to another
city for a different Tet atmosphere. While foreigners go
travel Vietnam to experience and know more about a traditional holiday
We are all wish a happy, lucky and successful NEW YEAR!
Vietnam Travel
Vietnam Easy Rider