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Vietnamese New Year (Part 1: Preparation)P.S. Chinese New Year and Vietnamese New Year are quite similar. So, you may find some information is redundant between the articles. Because of this reason, some Vietnames tradition I will not go into detail. If you like to have more explaination for certain thing, you may refer back to Chinese New Year articles. Thank you.
Everybody enjoy New Year...Before we could begin the week long celebration there are many things that have to be prepare prior to the New Year arrival. Tet or Lunar New Year is usually taken place late January or early February and based on the lunar calendar consisting of a twelve years cycle named after animals (aka the zodiac). The zodiac consists of rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. This year would be the celebration of the tiger. Most people know the Lunar New Year as the Chinese New Year but this is incorrect since it is just not the Chinese that commemorate the special occasion. Viet Nam along with Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and of course China are among the countries that celebrate the Lunar New Year. The one thing you have to realize about the Vietnamese New Year is that most people will go all out for the holiday as it is probably the most important one of the year. Family will come together, no matter how far they are to bring in the New Year. Each household will begin cleaning the house until it spotless and decorating the home with flowers and candles. Oh and fireworks in front of the house!!!
What do you mean I have to clean...
One of the important tasks to do for the New Year is cleaning. The purpose of cleaning the house is to try to get rid of all the misfortunes of the previous year and begin the year on a clean slate. Not only the home has to be clean but also each individual person has to be debt free. A person cannot enter the year owing someone else as it is consider bad luck since the first few days of the year determine what might happen to him for the rest of year. For example, if someone is in debt, the person will further be in debt for the next twelve months. This is why people have to start getting ready for the New Year as the first few days are crucial in determining their year. So, you are debt free and have a clean house. What's next? A clean slate, literally. When you enter the New Year you would want to start it off clean and so should other people, right? Vietnamese New Year is commonly known as Tet. Tet is the time when not only you, yourself begin with a fresh start but you should also allow other people to do the same. Meaning? You should forgive those that did you wrong, all their faults and mistakes. No grudge, no hatred, and no hurtfulness. I think this would be the hardest task of all to accomplish. If you are a woman you would probably like this next preparation for the New Year. Shopping! Yes, that's right. It is a tradition to start the brand new year with new clothes to bring in the good luck. This custom seems to be the same with any other country today, which is you want to glam up and show off the new you. Since most families in Viet Nam are not that well off… each member of the household would get at least a new outfit. However, the one thing that people would not hold out on would be loading up on food. The Lunar New Year brings everyone together means that people would be having fun and eating a lot. By a lot I mean A LOT, it is seven days of pretty much partying!
Sigh, my life story...I remember when I was little and still in Viet Nam, 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 consist of 30-50 people? I'm pretty sure it is not just my family that has a lot of people in Viet Nam around New Year. While we are on the topic food, even in the United States if you go to any Asian market you will noticed all the red decoration (as it is the color of good luck), baskets of food wrap in color papers and ribbon, and flowers.
Food...The most appealing thing about Vietnamese New Year is food. Each of the traditional of foods have 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 has to be made before hand for the New Year and with today's society, most of those foods you can purchase at the store. Most important tradtional food for Vietnamese New Year are "Banh chung" and "Banh Tet." These are type of boiled rice cakes with pork meat and bean wrap in dong (arrowroot) leaves that would take 2-3 days to make. More on Tet's food will be in 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 answer some of the questions that you may have about the New Year. If you still ponder about something, please do let me know. Oh, and don't forget to follow me on Twitter as well. 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 bad (hehe). Good night.
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