How do Vietnamese celebrate Lunar New Year ( Tet ) ?

Question

Is there any specific ritual / custom that Vietnamese observe during this celebration ? What do they normally do on the eve, 1st day and 2nd day of the new year, are they the same as Chinese ? How many public holidays declared for Tet in Vietnam ? Any Vietnamese supersticions during this period ?

Answer 1

much like the chinese the dragon&drum dancers are out in force. there is much visiting and feasting ...everyone from all over try to return home... there is also much gambling and card playing even among the very poor... the only superstition i know of is they put great value on the first visitor.. if it is someone special it signafiys a good year ahead....

Answer 2

It is very much like Chinese celebrate. If you are buddish, you go to temple, Catholic go to the church (not necessary as Buddish). Lucky money hand out to the kids etc...

Answer 3

Although we celebrate on the same day as Chinese, it depends on the family Tết  is a major holiday where much celebration and feasting goes on. This was how we celebrated Tết

On Newyear's eve my dad left the house before 12 and came back when the clock strikes midnight. The reason was because we believe a first man who walks into the house would bring luck to us- sorry ladies!. We cooked lots of " Bánh chÆ°ng" all day and through out the night. We sat around the fire listened to my dad's stories waiting for "Bánh chÆ°ng" to cook usually 30 dozen of them. We cleaned the house in and out  to welcome the New Year and dumped all the trash before New year's day because we also believe we don't want to throw our fortune away on New year's day.

Like most Vietnamese family, we also have a shrine dedicated to our ancestors. We cooked all kind of food and offered them during 3 day of celebration. We also visited our grandparents' resting place, placed flowers and said a prayer asking our grandparents to look out for us during the year.

We always started our New year with a bang.  We burned a lots of firecrackers. Thousands of strings of firecrackers going off night and day for 72 hours.The more firecrackers you have, the more it shows how wealthy you are. Unfortunately after the Tết offensive, the government banned its citizen for using firecrackers because this confused the allies who could not distinguish the explosions from gunfire.    

Children wore new clothes and our parents gave out red envelopes with brand new money. We don't visit anyone on the first day of the year. According to our tradition, if we visited someone on the first day and they don't do well during that year, we would be the one to get blamed for theirs misfortune.

On the second and third day, my parents welcome their friends and family. School closed for 10 days for celebration. My dad used to wake us up by playing all kind of music from Khánh Ly, Thanh Thúy, Lệ Thu to Beatles, Bee Gees , CCR and Led Zeppelin on his Sony turn table or tape recorder. Everyone was upbeat and excited. The smell of the incense through out the house brought us a warm and safe feelings. As a child, I was always excited when Tet came. As an adult, I still love the smell of the incense when I say a prayer to my aunt before leaving the house. She was the most unselfish person I've never known in my life and now she is my guarding angel.

To Vietnamese people Tết is everything. It reminds us who we are and where we came from. I love being Vietnamese. I love Tết. I wouldn't want to change for anything in this world.

Answer 4

The traditional celebration "rituals" we used to practice back in Vietnam were, starting from 10 days before New Year 'til 14 days after (only 14 instead 15 like the Chinese, because we don't celebrate Yuen Siu on Jan. 15th):

----make lots of homemade foods, such as these Tamales-like type of food called Jung (Cantonese name, Chinese style is salty mung bean with pork filling) or Banh Tet (Vn name, the mung bean inside is sweet instead of salty), dried cabbages, and Chinese sausages.

----get some New Year Flowers, such as the orchids, kumquat (k-u-m-q-?) trees and peach blossom trees, decorating them with red envelopes, like Xmas tree ornaments.

----on Dec. 23rd, we have a special "farewell ceremony" for Ong Tao, the Kitchen God, with sugar canes, symbolizing the stairway to heaven, so that he can give reports on each household and bless each of our kitchen accordingly (usually hoping for prosperity in the amount of food we will have in storage) for the next year.

----then we "change the dressings" of each placque or monument on our altar, including our ancestor's placque (a symbol of buying them "new clothes" to notify them of the upcoming celebration), and on the front door, one for each God, changing all the decorations (red ribbons and peacock feathers and red bows).  For example, we would peel off all of the old "red dressings" from the previous year and put on new ones.  And for the "god" that's the gatekeeper, we peel off the old red pictured papers and paste on new ones.  Doing these things are also essential for bringing luck; if there's any ritual missed, it could bring bad luck or curse for our household.  It's old superstitions, but to me, it's all part of preparation work to get in the right frame of mind to welcome a fresh start for the new year.....kind of like Xmas decorations.

----get a new haircut, buy new clothes, new chopsticks, bowls, plates, spoons, and so on (we don't cut or wash hair on New Year's Day, it's a tradition/superstition to avoid "losing" the entire new year's luck).

----clean the whole house, not just the usual cleaning chores, but clean EVERY corner and crevice.

----get those red papers with writings of blessings on them, written in traditional calligraphy, just like Chinese calligraphy, except they're written in Vietnamese instead.  We post these throughout the house and even outside by the front door.  

----on New Years Eve, take a bath with Palm Leaves (to cleanse out all the negative energies from the past year) in the late afternoon, change into new clothes, and get ready for the annual "family dinner," where EVERYBODY from far and near must come home early to join.

----after dinner, go out to "walk the flower market" to look at the various New Year Flowers (especially the Peach Blossom, which is a symbol for bring "romantic luck" for the new year) and other trinkets and gift shopping for good luck.

----after walking the market, then go stand in line outside the temple, along with a HUGE crowd, waiting for the temple doors to open right at midnight to burn the "first incense" for luck for the next year.

----then play games, drink, and gamble ALL NIGHT, even the kids get to stay up as late as they can keep their eyes open.

----either crash and sleep in or go to temple with the elders on New Years Day.

----from Jan. 2 onward, go watch various Lion Dances (where the lions have to get the green lettuce, symbolizing money and prosperity, and red envelopes to bring good luck) at the local businesses as well as visit each relative and friend's house, bringing new year gift baskets, candies, fruits, banh tet, and most of all, MANY red envelopes for the kids.

----we celebrate for 2 full weeks, with all the "visiting" activities and Lion Dances (various businesses schedule their Dances on different days).

But since I migrated to the U.S., I don't get to do all of those activities anymore. The work culture here is sooo different that we don't even get New Year's Day off, least of all get to celebrate for 2 weeks and close down all the stores for a whole month. So I just limit it to getting the new things, get some New Year Flowers (especially my favorite orchids), listen to New Year songs, eat the family dinner, and give out red envelopes (called Lai Si in Cantonese and Ly Xy in Vn) filled with money to the little kids. In cities like L.A., New York, Vancouver, or Toronto, there might be some more "flower market" activities on New Years Eve.  It is still my #1 favorite holiday though!!

Given the current bad economy, even in Vietnam nowadays, according to my cousins, who still live there, they don't close stores and shops for a whole month for New Year preparation work and celebration anymore.  They still close early, like by 5 or 6 p.m., for people to go home for the "family dinner" though.  And they still close for actual New Years Day, and MAYBE for a couple more days after, but that's it.

Answer 5

It's time for Tet, I am writing at 11h near NEW YEAR. TET is a super vacation in Vietnam, celebrate a new year. But it's LUNAR YEAR. I am student so we are having a long vacation in 2 weeks.Vietnamese has lots of supersticions different from Chines. We put a "peach"-the tree in house

Specially, we give everyones money! It's famous supersticion in Vietnam. I tell you last year i got about 2000USD in 3 days from folks. I hope this year will be more. lol!

Answer 6

i'm celebratin it on thursday. We burn fake chinese money and paper so that they could go to our ancestors and we have a feast. we also give out lucky money in a red paper envelope decorated with designs. usually i get about 300 dollars on tet. We also play old folk games and pray to our ancestor so that they could have a new year too. this year will be the year of the rat. last year was the year of the golden pig known to be one of the most lucky year to have a baby. tet is actually similar to chinese new year and for your info KP it is buddhist.