During Tet holiday( Vietnamese lunar new year holiday), Vietnamese people usually return to their families .Although Tet is a national holiday among all Vietnamese, each region and religion has its own customs.
Vietnamese people usually return to their families during Tet holiday( Vietnamese lunar new year holiday). Some return to worship at the family altar or visit the graves of their ancestors in their homeland. Although Tet is a national holiday among all Vietnamese, each region and religion has its own customs.
Tet – Vietnamese lunar new year holiday in the three Vietnamese regions can be divided into three periods, known as Before New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Eve and the New Year representing the preparation before New year day, the eve of New year day and the days of and following New year day respectively.
Before New Year’s Eve day
This period begins one or two weeks before the actual celebration. The general atmosphere leading up to lunar new year holiday is in the bustle of shopping, decorating the home, cooking traditional Tet food and waiting for relatives to return home. People try to pay off their debts in advance so that they can be debt-free on the lunar new year. day Parents buy new clothes for their children so that the children can wear them when lunar new year holiday arrives.
In the days leading up to Tet holiday, the streets and markets are full of people. As the shops will be closed during Tet holiday, everyone is busy buying food, clothes, and decorations for their house.
Vietnamese families usually have a family altar, to pay respect to their ancestors. Vietnamese families have a tray of five different fruits on their altar called five fruits type During Tet holiday the altar is thoroughly cleaned and new offerings are placed there. Traditionally, the three kitchen guardians for each house Kitchen God, who report to the Jade Emperor about the events in that house over the past year, return to heaven on the 23rd day of the twelfth month by lunar calendar. Their departure is marked by a modest ceremony where the family offers sacrifices for them to use on their journey.
In the days leading up to lunar new year holiday, each family cooks special holiday foods such as chung cake and day cake. Family members often take turns to keep watch on the fire overnight, telling each other stories about lunar new year of past years.
New Year’s Eve
The New Year’s Eve is the most sacred point of time, the passage from the old to the new year. It is popularly believed that in Heaven there are twelve Highnesses in charge of monitoring and controlling the affairs on earth, each of them taking charge of one year. The giao thua is the moment of seeing off the old chieftain upon the conclusion of his term and welcoming in the new one upon his assumption of office. For this reason, every home makes offerings in the open air to pray for a good new year.
the New Year day
The first day of Tet holiday is reserved for the nuclear family. Children receive a red envelope containing money from their elders. This tradition is called happy new age i. Usually, children wear their new clothes and give their elders the traditional lunar new year greetings before receiving the money. Since the Vietnamese believe that the first visitor a family receives in the year determines their fortune for the entire year, people never enter any house on the first day without being invited first. The act of being the first person to enter a house on lunar new year day – the lunar new year is called “xông nhà”, which is one of the most important rituals during Tet holiday. According to Vietnamese tradition, if good things come to the family on the first day of the lunar New Year, the entire following year will also be full of blessings. Usually, a person of good temper, morality and success will be the lucky sign for the host family and be invited first into the house. However, just to be safe, the owner of the house will leave the house a few minutes before midnight and come back just as the clock strikes midnight to prevent anyone else entering the house first who might potentially bring any unfortunate events in the new year to the household.
Source : http://vietnamcharm.com/tet-holiday-of-the-vietnamese-4831
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