Technically, the Kitchen Gods myth and rituals are independent from Tết. The Kitchen God Day is the de facto start of the holiday season, occurring one week before Tết - people start procuring food, buy Hoa Dào branches, and do household decorations. “Swim and tell God that I have been good”. Bánh chưng – The Iconic Food for Vietnamese Lunar New Years Nonetheless, traditional Tết food is eaten for the sake of tradition. The traditional Tết meals include things like sticky-rice cakes (bánh chưng), boiled chicken, pork/beef sausage, special soups and spring rolls.ĭoes that sound appetizing? Most urban Vietnamese no longer think so - with the economic liberalization of Vietnam and the influx of decadent food like KFC and Dominos Pizza, people now think that traditional Tết food is kind of boring, similar to the way that Christmas turnips and cranberry sauce aren’t so exciting to Canadians anymore. “My wish for the whole year was to have a full bowl of rice on Tết “ remarked a sixty-year Vietnamese old woman, thinking of her childhood. In the recent past, before capitalism and mass-consumerism buoyed the lives of the average Vietnamese, people looked forward all year to Tết in which they could eat meat and have a full bowl of rice. Source: Sucu kinhtrang 4) Traditional Meals for the Lunar New Yearįood! - food is the big thing about Tết, where you eat and drank all day long with family. Vườn Hoa Lạc Long Quân in Hanoi a market for Peach Blossom Branches. A parent may say something like “oh, let me take care of it for you, and when you need something, I will give it back to you”, or “I need your money because I gave all my money to the other children!” - the duped-children quickly learn to not trust them, and instead secure their lucky money somewhere safe. In the past, they could use it to buy “fun” things like books and candy.Ī little game that parents will play on their children is to try and trick them into giving them their money. They get to walk around their family and neighbourhood and collect luck money - little red packets with 20,000 to 500,000 VND. Photo credit: Lynn VietnamDaily Lucky money envelpes for Tet. 2) Vietnamese Children Love “Lucky Money” for the New Year Lucky money envelpes for Tet. Consider doing something low-key and unexciting, like lounging on a warm beach or reading a book - there won’t be anything else exciting happening. If you are planning a trip to Vietnam around Tết, be sure to stock-up on essentials and food and have multiple contingencies available in case you have problems. It is not like the now-secular West, where only Christmas day is closed. You’ll have a difficult time finding hotels and amenities that are open. Politicians and government workers, who are stereotypically very devote to Tết rituals, spend a lot of time traveling around to the pagodas and praying for good luck and prosperity.Īs a tourist in Vietnam, Tết is a terrible time to travel - the week leading up to Tết will be overbooked and crowded (everything thing takes x2 or x3 as long to do), and then everything will be shut-down during the 3-4 days following the Tết. Government functions are especially slowed-down around the New Year. Downtown Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are like ghost-towns. Lunar new year banner from Vietnam – Lynn VietnamDaily 1) Everything Shuts-Down Around the Vietnamese New YearĪround Tết, the normally-crowded cities become empty, as urban families flee to their familial origins in the country-side.
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