Celebration

The Lunar New Year holiday, known as Tet, is the most popular and important festival in Vietnam. The new year is a time for new things, so people clean the house, the ancestor’s altar at home, and their ancestor's grave, trim the trees, remove old things, polish housewares, decorate the house, and buy new plants and flowers. Cherry blossoms, yellow apricot blossoms, and kumquat trees symbolize Tet. At least one kind can be found in every house, office, or school during Tet. Traditional Tet food is chung cake in the North, Tet cake in the South, boiled chicken, pickled onion, spring roll and so on. A number of customs are practiced during Tet, such as having a large meal for all extended family on the last day of the year (tat nien), visiting the house on the first day of the new year (xong nha), worshiping ancestors, wishing Tet, and giving lucky money to the elderly and children. Tet is also an occasion for pilgrims and family reunions. The Vietnamese celebrate Tet by visiting relatives, friends, neighbours, and pagodas. Every family goes to great lengths to welcome other people into their homes, provide good food and drink for guests. During Tet, people forget the troubles of the past year and hope for a better year ahead. It seems that Tet in Vietnam combines the spirit of Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, and everyone's birthday in Canada.