Tết

Nguyen Nguyen
4 days ago
3 min read

Growing up mainly in Vietnam, Tet has always had a special place in my heart. It’s a big celebration of Vietnamese culture where many reunite and wish for each other's welfare. However, after I moved to the U.S., Tet’s impression changed; it lost its celebratory spirit and closeness that I had felt in Vietnam. So now, to revisit my nostalgia, I will note down my experience of Tet back in Vietnam.

Tet, a traditional Vietnamese holiday that often follows the lunisolar calendar, often starts around late January to mid-February. This holiday is known to be celebrated for an entire week; however, the first 3 days of Tet are the actual official celebration days of the holiday. Tet is often associated with a zodiac from the Chinese zodiac, where there are 12 Chinese zodiacs in total: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig. And funnily enough, each country in Asia has its own set of the Chinese zodiac. Each year, we welcome an animal spirit from the Chinese zodiac to celebrate its presence and spirit in the new year. With this in mind, a lot of families tend to decorate their house in red, yellow, along with the spirit animal.

*An example of how houses often look during Tet.*

Tet for many is a lively, yet quick-paced holiday. This is seen in its preparation, where many started the day before the night of Tet, buying the following fruits: coconut, papaya, mango, mangosteen fruit, and pineapple. These fruits are then organized in a plate, becoming “mâm ngũ quả”, one of the tools for the ritual. Fast forward to before 12 am, family, mainly adults, setting up the ritual’s table, the plate of fruit was then used as an offering for their ancestors and gods, where they began to start a ritual that wishes for fortune and safety for each other in the upcoming year. Fireworks then start cracking down from the sky as the new year comes, many will then either watch it or go to bed to prepare for a busier day. For adults, they often wake up early to prepare food, and in Northern Vietnamese practice, they would make “xôi”, to once again offer it for its symbolism, aka flourishment.

Kids will then get woken up by their parents and begin dressing up in ao dai to go to either a pagoda or a church to open the year with luck gained from the above. Family members would meet up at the church/pagoda and pray together for further fortune and a great start to the year. Afterwards, they will head home together and begin a tradition called “lì xì” and “chúc Tết.” “lì xì”, in other words, means giving out or receiving lucky money in a red envelope. “chúc Tết” is then often done after an adult/kid receives the lucky money. Here, many often make this tradition more playful by putting different money values in the same red envelope. They then give each person in the family a chance to randomly pick the envelope, resulting in some winning a big amount of money, while others winning barely $1. Some even make others roll dice, and if two of the dice ended up in an even or similar number, they can get double the amount that the person is giving out. However, it’s noteworthy that you should never open the red envelope to check the value of the money inside in front of the person who gave you it, as it’s considered rude. After this, the family will then dive into the meal together. And once evening comes, parents will then drive their children around to their friends' or other relatives' houses to “chúc Tết”, while they catch up with their friends while wishing for their well-being in the new year.