We were fortunate enough to be in Vietnam to celebrate Tet, the country’s largest yearly festival! Our three words describe this delightful holiday: colorful, happy, and family.

Tet – The New Year’s celebration usually lasts seven to 10 days, but the actual day is the first day of the first month in the lunar calendar = February 5 for 2019. The official name of the festival is Tet Nguyen Dan, but we only heard people refer to it as Tet. We learned from our hotel proprietors that during this special time of year the Vietnamese show respect and remembrance for their ancestors and celebrate with their families. It is similar to Christmas and New Year’s combined and Tet includes festive decorations, special food, family time, gifts for children, and community activities. From looking at all the home, business, and park decorations, it was easy for us to figure out that 2019 is the year of the pig.

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Decorations and Preparations – In addition to seeing many posters featuring smiling pigs and pig sculptures in Vietnam during January and February, we enjoyed the colorful flowers plus the red and yellow banners. These two colors are thought to bring good fortune. Many homes and businesses were decorated with trees or tree branches: kumquat trees with beautiful orange fruits, pink-blossoming peach trees, and apricot or ochna interigerrima trees with yellow flowers. Several of the trees were quite large! One afternoon in Hue we watched a small crane move a large potted tree from a delivery truck onto the sidewalk in front of a business. A teenager standing near us explained that a tree this size costs about $1,000. We also saw many large pots of beautiful yellow marigolds and chrysanthemums on porches. One or two days before New Year’s Day, we observed people burning fake paper money and other papers in front of their homes, as well as cleaning their windows and porches with great enthusiasm. One of our hosts explained that Vietnamese try to get rid of any bad fortune by resolving disputes, paying their debts, cleaning (even painting) their homes, and buying new clothes before the new year begins.  During January and early February we walked past many stores selling fancy clothes and shoes for children and adults to wear the first days of the new year.

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Food – Vietnamese celebrate Tet with special food at family meals, including savory and sweet rice cakes wrapped in banana leaves. They also feast on candy and cookies, many of which are imported from the US and Europe. Our visits to supermarkets during the end of January were extra interesting because we saw many, many familiar and tasty cookies and candy.  We exercised some (not complete) self-discipline.

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Famiy – Vietnamese visit their family home for about a week during the Tet holiday and this home is usually in a small town. This means that many businesses, including hotels and restaurants, were closed during the first week of February. Fortunately we had found accommodations in Hue and Hoi An well ahead of time at family-run hotels that planned to be open just before and during Tet. We did notice quite a few closed eateries and the ones that stayed open typically charged 10 or 15% more because the employees were paid extra for working during the holiday. Vietnamese focus primarily on family for the first few days of the new year. The first day is spend visiting one’s parents and very close friends. On the second day the Vietnamese spend time with their in-laws and some additional good friends. And during the third day people call upon their distant relatives and teachers. Vietnamese often visit the graves of deceased family members on this day as well. Our Hoi An host said that most people add special decorations to the family altar in their homes, such as candy, flowers, pretend money, extra candles, and usually five kinds of fruits at the start of the new year.

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New Year’s Eve – We stayed at a small family-run hotel in Hoi An for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Near the Old Town we watched the evening dragon parade which included drummers, dancers, and of course a colorful dragon. Our host family was very gracious to invite us to watch the midnight fireworks with them on the balcony. It was a splendid 15-minute light show with many large, loud firecrackers exploding simultaneously throughout the display, not just for a finale. The video below is a recording of the middle portion of the fireworks show.

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New Year’s Day – We were awakened at 6:15 am by the loud beating of drums.  Several hours later we learned why. One the first day of the new year the Lucky Lion visits homes to impart blessings for the new year and is accompanied by percussionists plus a joker. With interest we watched as the Lucky Lion and joker danced and blessed the family of our proprietor. Typically families exchange gifts on this day and parents give spending money to their children. Moms and dads hope that the money will encourage the children to be more respectful and grateful towards their parents. As we walked into our hotel in the evening on New Year’s Day our proprietress apologized for leaves and dust that were on the lobby floor. She said that families do not clean their houses on this day (except for washing dishes) and that she did not sweep up the leaves yet because she “did not want to sweep out the lucky.”

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