Today marks the start of Tết (pronounced "Thet"), which is the Vietnamese New Year and the start of spring based on the lunar calendar. It is usually celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year, falls in January or early February, and is celebrated for anywhere from three to fourteen days (this is the year of the ox)! I jumped back to a 2011 blog (the year I married into a Vietnamese family) to help me remember the "rules" and customs of this incredibly important holiday for Asians across the world.
There are many Tết-related customs which I had forgotten about, re-posted here:
- cleaning the house (supposedly you are not allowed to clean on the New Year, which makes many people feel obligated to clean frantically in the days leading up to the holiday; sweeping after the New Year is not allowed as it represents "sweeping the luck away" [no danger of inadvertent sweeping in this house!])
- decorating the house: Most people erect a cây nêu, or an artificial New Year's tree, a bamboo pole decorated with charms and origami paper products
- cooking and eating lots of delicious food (such as banh chung [sticky rice cakes], gio cha [Vietnamese sausage], and candied fruit)
- paying all of your debts
- going home and visiting lots of extended family (obviously not an option this COVID year) and celebrating your ancestors
- giving money to children and elderly people; children are supposed to give a "new year's greeting" (such as wishing health, longevity, security) before they can receive money (often lucky $2 bills) in red envelopes from their elders
- giving other gifts (especially "red" things and things related to the lucky numbers 6 or 8)
- strict policies on visitors: the Vietnamese believe that the first visitor a family receives in the year determines their fortune for the entire year; therefore, you should never enter the home of another family on New Year unless invited first (lest you be an "unlucky" person and set an unlucky tone!). It is an honor to be "the one invited" to a family's house. I heard that, to prevent a potentially "unlucky" person from being the "first enterer," the owner of the house sometimes slips out of the house shortly before midnight and returns just after midnight to be the "first" back in! (We won't be having any visitors for a while this year. But I walked the dog this morning and re-entered the house as our first "person" today!)
No-nos for Tết include:
- saying or doing bad things during the New Year
- sweeping as above
- giving unlucky gifts (watches/clocks, medicine, scissors/knives)
- eating duck or shrimp (unlucky, and representing poor prospects of success, respectively)
- wearing black or white (white being the color of funerals in Vietnam)
- refusing any wishes/gifts
Here are some cute pictures of the boys in traditional áo dài (pronounced ow-yigh).
We found a library book on the folklore behind the Tết bamboo pole.
What would photo session be without launching-off-the-couch photos (someone tell this kid it's not a Leap Year!)? :)
Red envelopes from the aunties
We are missing our Orange County family this year, and are hoping we can celebrate this, and all sorts of holidays by 2022!
Chúc mừng năm mới
(Happy Lunar New Year!)
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