Filtered By: Lifestyle
Lifestyle

Tet festival in Vietnam welcomes the Year of the Cat


You know that the Lunar New Year in Vietnam is fast approaching when the prices of everything – particularly food, flowers, and clothes – go skyrocketing as residents scramble for new stuff for the new year. The city's prime electronics and electrical appliance stores are triple busy with buyers wanting to bag that 32-inch TV or LCD flat screen. The export surplus store at the corner is buzzing with girls parking their motorbikes and sorting through the clothes on display, looking for a nice outfit to wear on New Year's Eve. Likewise, your xeom driver – the guy who offers you a ride on his own motorbike – demands a higher fare, mumbling about how important the TET celebration is. Welcome to the craziness of Tet, the Lunar New Year Festival in Vietnam! In the city center of Saigon, on the famous Le Loi Boulevard, an installation of flowers is being built which will be ready in time for Tet. The festival is celebrated on the same day as the Chinese Lunar New Year, which starts on February 3 this year. And since this year is the Year of the Cat (the Vietnamese replaced the Rabbit in the Chinese Zodiac with the Cat), there are signs and installations downtown saying Tet Tan Mao 2011 (Happy New Year of the Cat!)!

Year of the Cat flower installation on Le Loi Boulevard downtown Saigon.
Tet is actually a shortened version of Tet Nguyen Dan, which literally means the "first morning of the first day of the new period," according to a popular blog about Vietnam. There's an excerpt in the blog from Sketches for A Portrait of Vietnamese Culture by Huu Ngoc that explains the Tet festival beautifully: "For a nation of farmers attached to the land for millennia, it has always been a festival marking the communion of man with nature. In the flow of seasons it is a pause during which both the field and the tiller enjoy some rest after twelve months of labor. In this period of universal renewal the Vietnamese man feels surging within himself a fountain of youth. That feeling explains many fine customs: in the New Year all action should be pure and beautiful for it may be an omen foretelling events in the twelve months that follow." Long holiday season The harried preparations and shopping start right after the Western New Year of January 1. Most people, and even business companies, plan early for all the things that go inside a bag of goodies that the Vietnamese normally give away during this season.
Department stores spruce up their façades with special installations for the Tet festival.
Tet is a long holiday that is comparable to our Christmas and New Year holidays in the Philippines. The Tet season usually starts on the 23rd day of December of the previous Lunar New Year when the Kitchen God – usually represented by three individuals – returns to heaven to report to the Jade Emperor about the events that happened in the past year in the household. Each family sends off the Kitchen God with a small ceremony featuring the burning of incense, food offerings, or burning fake paper money and items of wealth. Before Tet, the Vietnamese would start cleaning out their places of work and residence particularly the façade of their homes, offices, and stores. It is pretty common to see households putting a fresh coat of paint on the gates of their houses, or removing the dirt and grime from the signboard of their retail establishment. Bright lanterns or a spotlight appear in front of the door to invite good luck and to drive away bad luck. The family altar is cleaned and new offerings of incense, flowers, and fruit are placed for the ancestors.
Flowers and parasols. A canopy of yellow apricot flowers adorn Dong Khoi St while red parasols brighten up a hotel façade on Le Loi St.
Various decorations are used to liven up the festivities. Flowers adorn every street corner and the front of houses and offices. There are great clumps of chrysanthemums and marigolds everywhere. In the north, the pinkish-colored peach flowers arranged in a vase are positioned near entrances or just after the door to invite prosperity and, according to the older generation, to ward off evil. In the south, the golden yellow flowers of the mai apricot adorn most households and national landmarks, such as the square in front of the City Hall. Days before the New Year, families would start cooking the traditional New Year's fare -- banh chung and banh day. Banh chung is a huge piece of sticky rice cake with a meat or green bean filling meticulously wrapped in a special leaf called dong in a square shape. A single banh chung can probably feed three to four people, which is one reason why it was very popular during times of want in Vietnam. Banh day is another kind of sticky rice cake but it has a circular shape. I had a chance to eat banh chung some years ago and I thought it was like our malagkit but with a bland taste, or maybe I just like my food to have more spices or salt for flavor. "First-footer" tradition As early as the weekend before Tet, the Vietnamese start going to the provinces so they will have enough time to travel home and return to their work in the city. Like the New Year tradition in the Philippines, the Vietnamese people try to buy something new to wear or own at the start of the year. People also stock up on food and other essentials, as most retail and shopping establishments are closed during the week of Tet.
Apricot trees for sale on Central Saigon Street.
In Hanoi or the northern territories, everything stands still – even the market next door. When I worked there before transferring to Saigon, I found out that food establishments cease to operate during Tet, crippling my lifestyle (I don't cook). Thus, while most families were feasting on native delicacies, I subsisted primarily on every kind of noodle dish imaginable – with chicken (pho ga), snails (bun oc), beef (pho bo), and other variations. On New Year's Day, the Vietnamese spend time with their immediate families. Usually, a red packet containing money or gold jewelry is given to younger members of the family. Everyone greets each other Chuc Mung Nam Moi! (Happy New Year).
Li xi or red money packets bring good luck to the young ones.
The Vietnamese have a "first-footer" tradition called "xong dat" – the first person who enters a house or establishment on the hour signaling the Lunar New Year is considered as the one that will bring in luck and prosperity for that household in the year ahead. Usually, this is a person of great prestige, success, or integrity. This is why, on the first day of the New Year, one does not visit a house uninvited. In the following days, the Vietnamese visit friends and relatives bringing baskets of goodies, flowers, and cheer. Usually, the second day is devoted to friends while the third day is devoted to visiting teachers and other personages who command respect. Buddhist temples are very busy during this time, with a steady flow of visitors and the faithful bringing offerings and praying for good luck and prosperity. – YA, GMANews.TV
LOADING CONTENT