Tet - The Vietnamese New Year Celebration

February 15, 2018

The most import holiday celebrated in Vietnam is “Tet” or Lunar New Year. Tet means “joint of a bamboo stem” or beginning period of the year. The Vietnamese New Year occurs somewhere in the last ten days of January through the first twenty days of February, nearly halfway between winter solstice and spring equinox.

For the Vietnamese people, Tet is a festival of purity and renewal and very intrinsic to the culture of this wonderful people. It is far more than just another holiday celebration; imagine a combination of New Year’s Day, Christmas, Memorial Day and Thanksgiving. Everywhere, EVERYTHING is transformed and completely decorated, and the streets are FILLED with flowers. During Tet, the biggest holiday of the year for Vietnam, the city is practically deserted because everyone has gone home to be with family. Previous to this beloved holiday, it is  incredibly busy and crowded with people at the stores and markets; a bit like the weeks leading up to Christmas, for us in America. Everyone is out and busy getting extra food and new items for their homes to celebrate the new year. It has been a fun holiday for us to see and experience.

Homes are often cleaned and decorated before their New Year’s Eve.  The kitchen needs to be cleaned before the 23^rdnight of the last month. “Ong Tao”, the kitchen god is making an inspection to report to the Jade Emperor in Heaven’s Palace. It is a common belief that cleaning the house will get rid of bad fortunes associated with the old year.

The Vietnamese people believe that there are 12 sacred animals, or chiefs, from the Zodiac, taking turn monitoring and controlling the affairs of the earth. New Year’s Eve is the time for one chief to end his ruling term and pass his power to the new chief. The past year has been the year of the chicken (2017), so Chicken will go with the kitchen god, Ong Tao, to give his report to the Jade Emperor about the affairs of the family and how well the kitchen has been kept. With this report, Chicken will give up his rule to Dog (2018) at midnight. Dog, as the new ruler, then makes his report of the family’s affairs throughout the 2018 year. 

Our translator, Thu, gave us a branch of a peach tree, Hoa Dao, for our apartment. It is a symbol of new beginning and takes the place of the Christmas tree we didn’t have. It has blossomed out very nicely and helps get us in the spirit of this festive time of the year. Everyone needs a Hoa Dao for their homes, so the streets are full of peach trees and branches for sale. In this picture, our neighbor, Phuong, is showing off her new Ao Dia next to our peach branch.

One of the most traditional special foods for Tet is Banh Chung (square sticky rice cake). The people make this cake by soaking sticky rice and green beans for a day, which makes the rice and beans extra sticky. Also, there is pork belly meat soaked for several hours with pepper and onions.

To make the cakes, very large “Dong” leaves (about the size of banana leaves) are gathered, washed and soaked. Two leaves are laid out crisscross on the preparing table. A scoop of sticky rice dough is put in the middle of the leaves and made into a square shape. Next, a scoop of the sticky bean paste is put on the rice, laid out and squared, followed by some pork meat on top of that, and layered with more bean paste and another layer of sticky rice dough. The cake is constantly being squared as the layers pile up. The first leaf is then wrapped around the cake, in one direction, and then the second leaf is wrapped in another, making sure that the cake is square. Finally, the cake is tied with bamboo strings and put under a weight so that all the layers will compress together. 

This process is repeated many times until there are enough cakes to fill a big kettle of water to be put on an open fire to cook for 12 hours. This takes a lot of tending to the fire so that the pot keeps boiling. It has become a tradition with many families to gather around the cooking pot and tell family stories. The cakes are then eaten by family members and given as gifts during Tet..

We watched fireworks on New Years Eve by going up to the top of our tall apartment building and watching, alongside several other residents from our building, the various displays of fireworks in the city. It was a convenient way to observe the  fireworks, as we were able to see three different displays.

We were invited to lunch on New Years Day at the home of one of our LDSC partners, Nhi.  She has a foster mother in her life, that helped her when she was a teenager. She wanted us to meet her. Before meeting Nhi's stepmother, I felt impressed that I needed to take a present and found the perfect potted plant to give her. While we were there, Nhi introduced us to her brother.  He speaks English well and made our visit more enjoyable because he could understand us. This made it so we were able to visit with and get to know  the other guests more. Our dear friend, Dong, came with us, too and we were glad that he did.

After Lunch, Nhi’s foster mother took Nhi and I up to the top floor of her home, where there is an ancestral altar. She shared with us that this altar was set up to offer respect to her recently deceased husband, who had a heart attack three years ago and passed away. When I found out about the death of her husband, I felt great compassion for this kind woman and put my arms around her. She was overcome by my gesture, and in an instant our hearts were “knitted” together. I felt the Spirit prompt me that she needed someone to mourn with her and feel her heartache. She misses her husband very much. I know that the Lord sent me there that night for the purpose of sharing in her grief and giving her some comfort by letting her know that someone, a stranger even, cared and understands her pain. That experience has made us feel close to one other in a deep and meaningful way, and to have a desire to spend more time together.

..."as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called His people, and are willing to bear one another's burdens, that they may be light: Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places..."      --Mosiah 18:8-9

Tet is all about families and feeling the connection of coming together. Living family members of ancestors are invited to the cemetery to burn incense and honor the dead by cleaning their graves. Most people also put food, fake money, paper clothes and other items that the family member think will bring those who have passed on a little comfort and let them know that they are not forgotten. This is called ancestor worship in Vietnam. From what I have observed it is another way of honoring and remembering family members that have passed away.