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Tet Nguyen Dan is a Vietnamese festival beginning on the first day of the first lunar month. It marks the beginning of the lunar new year and the arrival of spring. This traditional festival maintains the national culture. Tet often lasts from late 10 days of January and mid February.
As a nation living on agriculture for many centuries, Tet is a good occasion to associate man with nature. Tet helps farmers relax themselves after twelve working months. In the New Year, everything is nice and bright which can bring good lucks to the following year. All things grow strongly while each Vietnamese person is full of vitality.
Homes are often cleaned and decorated before New Year's Eve. People are in charge of sweeping and scrubbing the floor. The kitchen needs to be cleaned before the 23rd night of the last month. Usually, the head of the household cleans the dust and ashes (from incense) from the ancestral altars. It is a common belief that cleaning the house will get rid of the bad fortunes associated with the old year. Some people would paint their house and decorate with festive items. 1.1. The Plate of Five Fruits in Vietnamese New Year A plate filled with five types of fruits sits on the ancestor’s altar in every Vietnamese home during the New Year. The fruits are colorful and meaningful. They make New Year more lively and sacred. In Asian mythology, the world is made of five basic elements: metal, wood, water, fire and earth. The plate of fruits on the family altar at New Year is one of several ways to represent this concept. The plate of fruits also represents the desire for good crops and prosperity. The plate of fruits traditionally contains five to eight types: a bunch of bananas, a grapefruit, "Buddha’s-hand" fruit, a lemon, oranges, tangerines, apples, or persimmons. Families choose only the best looking fruit, which are arranged in a pyramid. This practice has changed with modern lifestyles. Other fruits such as sapodilla, watermelons, coconuts, and custard apples may be added to the plate. Some families even use flowers and small colored electric lights to decorate the plate. The plate of fruits in northern Vietnam is usually smaller than in the south. The three required fruits in the north are bananas, grapefruit and tangerines or oranges. The plate in southern Vietnam must have watermelons, custard apples, coconut, papaya and mangoes. The names of these fruits in Vietnam echo words signifying prayers for wealth. The plate of fruits gives the family altar a cozy and colorful look. It helps to stress the importance of family traditions and family life. 1.2. Apricot flowers and peach flowers
Flower buds and blossoms are the symbols for new beginning. These two distinctive flowers are widely sold and purchased during Tet. Hoa Mai are the yellow apricot flowers often seen in Southern Viet Nam. Hoa Mai are more adaptable to the hot weather of southern regions, thus, it is known as the primary flower in every home. Hoa Dao are the warm pink of the peach blossoms that match well with the dry, cold weather from the North. Tet is not Tet if there is no sight of Hoa Mai (south) or Hoa Dao (north) in every home. 1.3. Parallel Sentences in Vietnamese New Year Parallelism played an important role in Vietnamese classical literary style. It marks every literary genre from prose to poetry, including a kind of rhymed pose. It entirely governs a particular genre, call parallel sentences. A pair of parallel sentences comprises tow parts, the words of which must stand opposite to one another in the six tones of the Vietnamese language as well as in meaning. In Vietnam in the old days, parallel sentences were composed during meetings between literati, in salons, on the occasion of festivals, weddings, and even funerals. According to the circumstances, their contents might be solemn, laudatory, or mocking. On New Year’s Day, every home liked to have a pair of parallel sentences composed and written by a scholar on red paper and hung in the place of honor, usually on both sides of the entrance door or of the ancestors’ altar. In Hanoi, during the weeks preceding New Year, Hang Bo Street was crowed with people coming to buy parallel sentences from white-bearded calligraphers, whose stalls lined both sides of the street. Here are two pairs of well-known, old New Year parallel sentences: Fat meat, pickled onions, red parallel sentences New Year pole, strings of firecrackers, green Chung cake.
On the New Years’ Eve, pay debts on all sides; bending your legs, kick out
poverty. 1.4. The New Year Tree – Cay Neu
In the countryside, preparations come to and end with the raising of the New Year tree or Cay Neu in Vietnamese. The New Year tree is a piece of a bamboo five or six yards long is stripped bare excerpt for a little bunch of leaves. Near the top is suspended a round bamboo frame holding a few little fish and bells made of baked clay that tinkle softly in the wind. Beneath this frame are votive gifts and some thorny branches. At the top of the New Year tree, a small kerosene lamp is lit at night. The New Year tree marks the way for the ancestor’s spirits who came back from the other world to enjoy New Year with the living. Evil spirits are scared away by the thorns and the tinkling of the bells. Other precautions are also taken: villagers use lime powder to sketch a drawn bow on their courtyards. The arrows of the bow are supposed to frighten away evil spirits. 1.5. Traditional Tet painting You may have seen them before. They adorn the walls of Vietnamese restaurants everywhere in the world and Vietnamese overseas hang them up as Lunar New Year approaches. In Vietnam, production of these folk paintings peaks right before Tet as merchants stock up in anticipation of heavy customer demand. These paintings are traditionally used to decorate homes for the New Year festival.
Producing Dong Ho paintings is a trade of time-honoured tradition of the
village of Dong Ho. It is Dong Ho paintings that make Dong Ho village
famous across Vietnam as well as in the world. In fact, only Dong Ho
village's people can turn out real Dong Ho paintings.
Everyyear, when Tet comes closer the village's people are busy producing
Tet prints, transporting them to Hanoi for sale to wholesalers who
distribute them all over the country, keeping the tradition alive. Dong Ho
paintings are still something that can not lack in Vietnam's Tet. And many
foreigners like these paintings and often buy them as souvenirs for their
Feast of the Household Gods, this holiday falls on the twenty-third of the twelfth month of the lunar year. The holiday marks the day on which the chief guardian spirit of the kitchen returns to heaven to report on the activities of the family. A new spirit is then assigned to the household for the coming year to replace the previous one. On the day of Le Tao Quan, each family pays tribute to the kitchen God. This includes buring sacrificial gold paper and offering a fish )carp_ for him to ride on his journey to heaven.
The transition hour between the old year and the new year. It is one of the most importamt times during the TET holidays. It occurs at the midnight hour on New Year's Eve. Giao thua is the time when a family ushers out the spirits of the old year, a ritual called Le Tru Tich. It is especially important to give a warm welcome to the Spirit of the Hearth, Tao Quan, who has been to visit the Jade Emperor, Drums, gongs and firecrackers announced the hour of New Year's Eve .
Giao Thua is the most sacred time of the year. Therefore, the first houseguest to offer the first greeting is very important. If that particular guest has a good aura (well respected, well educated, successful, famous, etc.), then the family believes that they will receive luck and good fortune throughout the year. The belief of xong dat still remains nowadays, especially among families with businesses.
This ceremony is held on the first day of the New Year before noontime. The head of the household should perform the proper ritual (offering food, wine, cakes, fruits, and burn incense) to invite the souls of the ancestors to join the celebration with the family. This is the time families honor the souls of their ancestors and present the welfare of the family.
Visiting relatives is a kind of way to cement the relationship. On the occasion of Tet holiday, people wish each other health, prosperity, luck and all wishes can come true, etc; If someone is unlucky in the last year, they often get a wish “ Wish you get out of danger” or “Life of a comfortable loser” that means misfortune sometime reveals something lucky, it therefore makes someone think more positively.It is advisable to pay visits to the neighbors who are living closely to our family and give them best wishes on the occasion of a new year. Such visits may act as a favorable condition to get people together, even eliminate any disharmony in the last year to enjoy a harmonious new year.
This is a cultural practice that has been maintained for generations. The
red envelopes symbolize luck and wealth. It is very common to see older
people giving away sealed red envelopes to younger people. Before the
younger ones could receive the envelopes, they have to perform a certain
greeting. Reciprocally, the older ones would return good advice and words
of wisdom, encouraging the younger ones to keep up with the schoolwork,
live harmoniously with others, and obey their parents. Cinet |
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