Tet is fast approaching and Vietnamese households are busy sprucing up their homes and preparing festive feasts to welcome the Lunar New Year, which falls next Monday.

A girl arranges boiled banh chung (square glutinous rice cake) on a tray to worship ancestors

Despite the financial crisis, the Overseas Vietnamese Committee estimate there are hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese expatriates returning to their motherland to celebrate Tet this year.

A Vietnamese friend of mine, Duong Quang Phong, who lives in the US, emailed me to say that he and eight members of his family, including his 73-year-old mother Tran Thi Di, will spend Tet in their homeland in the northern province of Cao Bang, which they left almost 30 years ago.

Di says she is very excited to be coming home after so long to reunite with old friends and family. “I’m looking forward to making banh chung (square glutinous rice cake with green beans and pork) with them. I have very happy memories of chatting away to everyone as we boiled the cake. We would chat all night until the next morning!” she said.

Phong’s mother will stay at home to take part in the cung giao thua (New Year Eve) ritual, which involves giving offerings to the ancestors to say goodbye to the old year, and cung mong mot, a similar ritual which is held on the first day of the new year.

While she is busy doing that, Phong will take his wife, three children and two younger sisters to Pac Bo Cave in Ha Quang District – the famous place where President Ho Chi Minh worked and lived in 1944 before leading Viet Nam to victory against the French. They will also stop off at Ban Gioc Water Fall in Trung Khanh District near the Chinese border. “My children are very excited to be spending their Tet holidays in Viet Nam,” says Phong.

Further away from home, Vietnamese communities in Los Angeles, Paris or Moscow may have added some local flavour to their Tet celebrations, but all perform cung giao thua on the eve of the new year and invite their friends to festive parties.

Hanoians are also busy filling up their calendars with activities. After family celebrations, hundreds of young people converge in the city centre, especially Hoan Kiem Lake, to watch the annual fireworks display.

In the past, it was traditional for young people to pick a branch from a tree as a symbol of spring, but local authorities banned the practice to protect the city beauty. Today Hanoians buy fresh sugar canes as a cay loc (symbol of good luck) to take home. People believe that having a cay loc, or budding branch, in the home ensures good health and luck for the coming year.

One of the most important Tet traditions is xong dat: welcoming the first guest to your home on the first morning of the new year. The custom has been around for thousands of years.

These days, people plan their first visitors very carefully. If the head of the house was born in the Year of the Horse, he must choose a man (a young and healthy one) who was born in the Year of the Goat. Inviting the right guest will bring good fortune and prosperity for the coming year.

Tet is a time for everyone to enjoy, especially children. Kids get given crisp new notes (tien mung tuoi) and new clothes for the new year. ” Last Tet, I got VND5 million as lucky money which I spent on textbooks and short stories,” said 10-year-old student Hoang Thai Van.

The Lunar New Year is also 80-year old Nguyen Van Cuc’s favourite time of year. “Tet is when all my family meet together, including my sons and grandsons from HCM City and Sydney. I miss them very much when they are not here so this time is really special for all of us.”

(Source: VNS)