Tết: How to celebrate the Vietnamese New Year

In Vietnam, the Lunar New Year Festival is called Tết –  the shortened name of Tết Nguyên Đán which means “Feast of the First Morning of the First Day”. It starts at the transition of the lunar calendar and lasts for at least three days. Traditionally, the first day of Tết is reserved for the family and that is why many people return home for Tết (similar to Christmas in Western countries). During subsequent days, people visit relatives, friends, and colleagues or go to Buddhist temples to give donations and to get their fortune told. They temporarily forget about the trouble of the past year and hope for a better upcoming year.

Tết is accompanied by several customs, such as ancestor worship, New Year’s greeting, house cleaning, giving lucky money, and cooking holiday food. It sounds superstitious and strenuous at first, but the true meaning behind these traditions is to connect people.

Like in many Asian countries, ancestor worship plays a distinctive role in Vietnamese culture. In this ceremony, the descendants are reminded of their roots by paying tribute to the ancestors at the family altar.

On a special occasion like Tết, this ritual is viewed as an opportunity for the livings to communicate with the deceased family members, inviting them to reunite and celebrate with the family. Special rites, which include altar cleaning and placing new offerings, are performed to bring utmost comfort to the ancestors’ souls.

Superstitious as it may sound, Vietnamese consider what they do/what happens to them on the dawn of a new year will determine their fate for the whole year, hence people want to start the year with lots of greetings and genuine smiles, even from strangers.

The usual greetings are Chúc Mừng Năm Mới (Happy New Year). Others such as wishing for peace, health, longevity, prosperity, and luck are often used as well. Greetings can be expressed verbally or can be artfully presented as Thư Pháp – the Vietnamese calligraphy.

Another ritual that often takes place is the pre-New Year cleaning. By sweeping all the dust away, Vietnamese people believe that all bad luck and misfortune of this year will be wiped out. Therefore, the house should be cleaned thoroughly before New Year Eve.

Even the hardly accessed areas such as the tops of the bookshelves, lamps, storage areas, and outer windows should be spotless. Besides, a clean house is also good for feng shui as it attracts positive energy flowing into the house.

Áo dài – the Vietnamese national costume – is a tight-fitting silk tunic worn over pants. It is usually worn on Tết and other formal occasions such as graduation and wedding. The history of áo dài dated back to the 1920s when Hanoi artists, inspired by Parisian fashion, redesigned áo ngũ thân (a five-paneled aristocratic gown worn in the 19th and 20th century) as a modern dress. Then, in the 1950s, Saigon designers tightened the fit to produce the version worn by Vietnamese women today.

Áo dài is commonly worn by women but can also be worn by men. The male version, however, is slightly different in fitting style, garment types (usually thicker fabrics), colors, and patterns. Children also have their own version of áo dài.  It looks typically simpler and made of materials that are lighter than the ones for adults such as wool or linen. In most cases, áo dài for girls are collarless, while those for boys still have collars.