Vietnamese New Year: Seven Traditions To Celebrate Tet Nguyen Dan

Vietnamese also celebrate Lunar New Year and they call it the Tet Nguyen Dan. In Vietnam, this is celebrated on the first day of the first lunar month which falls in late January or early February.

It is the biggest and most important festivity in the Vietnamese calendar. For the Vietnamese people, the start of the Lunar year is seen as the beginning of a new cycle of the universe so families have many traditions to start afresh and bring in good luck for the new year. Below are seven traditions that the residents practice to celebrate this holiday.

1. Tet Nguyen Dan is usually celebrated for three days and some of the traditions are observed for as long as one week. The first day of the Vietnamese new year is typically spent with the immediate family while the second day is reserved for visiting friends, and the third is for teachers and temple visits for worship.

2. This is the planting of peach or apricot trees and they call this Hoa Đào and Hoa Mai. Vietnamese people look at beautiful flowers during the Tết Nguyen Dan as they believe some kinds of flowers will bring them good luck and happiness in the new year. They purchase peach and apricot flowers to decorate their homes.

3. People clean their homes to discard all the bad luck they experienced in the previous year. They redecorate and choose bright and colorful decors for good luck.

4. For this special holiday, Vietnamese also prepare holiday food. Some of the items that are found on their feast table are bánh chưng (a square cake made from glutinous rice, pork and mung bean), sticky rice, bánh dày (white, flat and round glutinous rice cake), canh măng (a dried young bamboo soup).

5. Elder people give out Lì Xì or the red envelopes with money. They consider this as lucky money and it is usually given out by the eldest members of the family to children and young adults. As they receive the envelopes, they are also given advice about life, work or school and in return, the receivers give wishes of good health, success and good luck.

6. On the night before the Tet Nguyen Dan, families perform rituals to honor and pay respects to their ancestors. Part of the rites is to invite their spirits to join the celebrations.

7. Vietnamese people also settle their debts and get a new haircut and buy new shoes and clothes for the holiday. All of these are for good luck and drive away any bad vibes.