Tet Nguyên Đán, 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 which is based on the Chinese calendar, a lunisolar calendar. The name Tet Nguyên Đán is Sino-Vietnamese for Feast of the First Morning, derived from the Hán nôm characters 節元旦. In modern Chinese, the characters for Nguyên Ðán (元旦) have evolved to refer to New Year in the Gregorian calendar, that is, January 1
Tet is celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year though exceptions arise due to the one-hour time difference between Hanoi and Beijing. It is celebrated from the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar (around late January or early February) until at least the third day. Tet shares many of the same customs of its Chinese counterpart. Many Vietnamese prepare for Tet by cooking special holiday foods and cleaning the house. On Tet, Vietnamese visit their families and temples, forgetting about the troubles of the past year and hoping for a better upcoming year. Tet traditionally marks the coming of spring, so "spring" (Xuân) is sometimes used interchangeably with Tet in Vietnamese.
There are many customs surrounding the celebration of Tet:
Dos:
One should give people lucky presents to enhance the relationship between themselves and others: new clothes, peach branches (for expelling evil), cocks (wishing for good manners), new rice (wishing for being well-fed), rice wine in a gourd (wishing for a rich and comfortable life), bánh chung (or bánh tét) and bánh dày which symbolize sky and earth (for worshipping the ancestors), red things (red symbolizes happiness, luckiness, advantages) like watermelon, dogs (the bark – gâu gâu – sounds like the word giàu - richness in Vietnamese language), medicated oil (dau in Vietnamese, also sounds similar to giàu).
One should give lucky Dong Ho Paintings such as: "Gà đàn" (wishing for having many children), or "Vinh hoa", but should not give unlucky Dong Ho paintings like "Đánh ghen" related to legal proceedings.
One should buy a lot of water for Tet, because people wish for money to flow like water currents in a stream (proverb: "Tien vô nhu nuoc").
One should sprinkle lime powder around the house to expel evil.
One should return all things borrowed, and pay debts before Tet.
Don'ts:
One shouldn't say or do bad things during Tet.
One shouldn't hurt or kill animals or plants but should set them free. The reason for this originates from Buddhism's causality.
One shouldn't sweep the house or empty out the rubbish to avoid luck and benefits going it, especially on the first day of the new year. One shouldn't let the broom in confusion if people don't want it to be stolen.
One shouldn't give these presents to others: clock or watch (the recipient's time is going to pass), cats (mèo in Vietnamese language pronounced like nghèo, poverty), medicine (the receiver will get ill), cuttle fish (its ink is black, an unlucky colour), writing ink (for the same reason), scissors or knives (they bring incompatibility).
One shouldn't have duck meat because it brings unluckiness.
One shouldn't have shrimp because they're afraid that they would move back like shrimp, in other words, they would not succeed.
One shouldn't buy or wear white clothes because white is the colour of funerals in Vietnam.
One shouldn't let the rice-hulling mill empty because it symbolizes failed crops.
One shouldn't refuse anything others give or wish you during Tet.
Tet is celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year though exceptions arise due to the one-hour time difference between Hanoi and Beijing. It is celebrated from the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar (around late January or early February) until at least the third day. Tet shares many of the same customs of its Chinese counterpart. Many Vietnamese prepare for Tet by cooking special holiday foods and cleaning the house. On Tet, Vietnamese visit their families and temples, forgetting about the troubles of the past year and hoping for a better upcoming year. Tet traditionally marks the coming of spring, so "spring" (Xuân) is sometimes used interchangeably with Tet in Vietnamese.
There are many customs surrounding the celebration of Tet:
Dos:
One should give people lucky presents to enhance the relationship between themselves and others: new clothes, peach branches (for expelling evil), cocks (wishing for good manners), new rice (wishing for being well-fed), rice wine in a gourd (wishing for a rich and comfortable life), bánh chung (or bánh tét) and bánh dày which symbolize sky and earth (for worshipping the ancestors), red things (red symbolizes happiness, luckiness, advantages) like watermelon, dogs (the bark – gâu gâu – sounds like the word giàu - richness in Vietnamese language), medicated oil (dau in Vietnamese, also sounds similar to giàu).
One should give lucky Dong Ho Paintings such as: "Gà đàn" (wishing for having many children), or "Vinh hoa", but should not give unlucky Dong Ho paintings like "Đánh ghen" related to legal proceedings.
One should buy a lot of water for Tet, because people wish for money to flow like water currents in a stream (proverb: "Tien vô nhu nuoc").
One should sprinkle lime powder around the house to expel evil.
One should return all things borrowed, and pay debts before Tet.
Don'ts:
One shouldn't say or do bad things during Tet.
One shouldn't hurt or kill animals or plants but should set them free. The reason for this originates from Buddhism's causality.
One shouldn't sweep the house or empty out the rubbish to avoid luck and benefits going it, especially on the first day of the new year. One shouldn't let the broom in confusion if people don't want it to be stolen.
One shouldn't give these presents to others: clock or watch (the recipient's time is going to pass), cats (mèo in Vietnamese language pronounced like nghèo, poverty), medicine (the receiver will get ill), cuttle fish (its ink is black, an unlucky colour), writing ink (for the same reason), scissors or knives (they bring incompatibility).
One shouldn't have duck meat because it brings unluckiness.
One shouldn't have shrimp because they're afraid that they would move back like shrimp, in other words, they would not succeed.
One shouldn't buy or wear white clothes because white is the colour of funerals in Vietnam.
One shouldn't let the rice-hulling mill empty because it symbolizes failed crops.
One shouldn't refuse anything others give or wish you during Tet.
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