Vietnamese New Year (Part 1: Preparation)

Sigh, my life story...

I remember when I was little and still in Vietnam, each year our family would go to our grandma's house to celebrate the New Year. All the women in the family, more than 10 of them, would have to wake up around 5am each morning to prepare breakfast and lunch. After each meal, the women had to start on the next one because they could not keep up with the feeding.

Now looking back my mom would complain how my cousins, brother, and I would run back and forth from the kitchen to grab something to munch on continuously throughout the day. She would go on about how she and my aunts could not cook fast enough to satisfy us hungry beavers. Did I mention each little New Year reunion consists of 30-50 people? I'm pretty sure it is not just my family that has a lot of people in Vietnam around New Year.

While we are on the topic of food, even in the United States if you go to any Asian market you will noticed all the red decorations (as it is the color of good luck), baskets of food wrapped in colored paper and ribbon, and flowers.

Food...

The most appealing thing about the Vietnamese New Year is food. Each of the traditional of foods has its own history and story behind it such as "banh chung," "banh tet," "hat dua," "cu kieu," and "mut." There are many types of food that have to be made beforehand for the New Year. In today's society, most of these foods can be purchased ready-made at the store.

The most important traditional foods for Vietnamese New Year are "Banh chung" and "Banh Tet." These are types of boiled rice cakes with pork meat and bean wrapped in dong (arrowroot) leaves that take 2-3 days to make. More on Tet food will be in the next article.

I have asked my sister to write this article for us. So, what do you think about the article? I hope that it answers some of the questions that you may have about the New Year. If you still wonder about something, please do let me know. Thank you for coming by. From where I am and wherever you are, don't make too many New Year resolutions because you will make me look bad (hehe). Good night.

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