Vietnamese New Year Celebration

The celebration of Vietnamese New Year, Tết Nguyên Đán, is considered the most important festival for the Vietnamese population. Unlike the Solar calendar, when the New Year occurs in the winter, Vietnamese New Year takes place during a transition period between winter and spring, celebrating the arrival of spring. New year day is considered the first day of spring, and lasts three days; but celebrations often continue for approximately one week or more, with preparation for the new year taking up even longer periods. During this time, the Vietnamese will partake in various traditions and activities including visiting their families and arranging reunions. It is considered a tradition that combines the western holidays of Thanksgiving, Christmas, …show more content…
This form of celebration stems from the belief that the Tet festival will be a reflection of the remainder of the year. Thus, it is crucial to maintain and emphasize happy and jolly demeanor while avoiding any negativity. This emphasis on jovial behavior is definitely a prominent theme throughout the course of the celebration process and is applicable in many forms, even including behavior towards others. An obvious example would be the incorporation of blessings. During the celebration period, the Vietnamese will commonly start a conversation with blessings for good luck, and written forms of blessing are predominantly utilized as decoration for various aspects including the house, food packaging, and red envelopes. There is a traditional order for the progression of social activities for Tet. The first day is dedicated to families and relatives first, and the second day is spent with friends and colleagues. Lastly, the third day is for teachers. However, this order doesn’t seem to be strictly followed, especially for …show more content…
Although it may appear to be simply a reason for adults giving allowance to children, it actually involves blessing from both parties. Both the children and the adults tell one another blessings before the red envelope is handed to the child. This process happens the first moment the adults see the children during Tet, and the elders usually give it to their grandchildren when they are visited to be paid respect. Parents will usually bring along gifts for the visit as a sign of respect to their parents. The tradition of red envelopes is based on a legend of a monster who was scared of red coverings, which evolved to the modern day red envelope. As a result, it is believed that the “lucky money” will also protect the children from evil spirits and bad