(Baonghean.vn) - Lunar New Year is always the most important time of the year for Asian countries. Let's go to these countries to see how people celebrate Tet!
China
 |
Like Vietnam, China is a country that celebrates the Lunar New Year in the first month of the lunar calendar every year. This is the biggest holiday of the year for the Chinese people, called Spring Festival. The time of New Year's Eve is different from the Western way of calculating because it is calculated according to the lunar calendar. The Lunar New Year is calculated from the first day of the first lunar month and ends on the day of the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month (the 15th day of the first lunar month). |
 |
| Ancestor worship is an important event during Tet. Chinese people worship their ancestors by offering "three lives": chicken, pork and fish. The first two dishes are essential and must be boiled, in addition to banh tet, tofu, fruit... Each type of food is covered with red paper. After lighting candles and incense, you must kneel down and pray. |
 |
| In many regions, people celebrate Tet with many different traditional customs, but on the evening of the 30th of Tet, the whole family gathers together for a reunion meal, regardless of the South or the North. In the South, the reunion meal usually has more than a dozen dishes, including tofu and fish, to pray for "wealth and abundance". In the North, the reunion meal is often eaten with dumplings, the whole family wraps them together, the dumplings have thinly rolled flour skins, wrapped in delicious meat, boiled, drained of water, the whole family gathers around the tray to enjoy a happy meal. |
Korea
 |
| The traditional Korean New Year is called Seollal. This is the most important holiday in Korean tradition, consisting of a series of festivals, starting from the first day of the Lunar New Year. Seollal lasts for 3 days and is considered more important than the first day of the Gregorian calendar, although Seollal is also used to refer to the Western New Year. |
 |
| Like Vietnam, the New Year in Korea officially begins on the 1st of the first lunar month, but in reality, the Tet atmosphere has been pervading since the last days of the year. On the 30th of Tet, families clean their houses. The night before New Year's Eve, they often take a hot bath to purify themselves. Bamboo sticks are burned in the house on New Year's Eve to ward off evil spirits. No one sleeps on New Year's Eve because according to legend, if they sleep, their eyelashes will turn white the next morning and their minds will be less clear when they wake up. During these days, every house hangs a Bok jo ri (a straw shovel used to scoop up spilled rice) outside the door with the hope of receiving blessings all year round. |
 |
On New Year's Day, Koreans wear colorful traditional Hanbok and pay respect to their ancestors in the morning. They often eat "tteokguk" (rice cake soup) in the morning. After eating "tteokguk", the new year truly begins. Koreans believe that eating "tteokguk" on the first morning of the year will bring good luck in the future. Koreans happily welcome the New Year (both lunar and solar) by visiting the East Coast such as the cities of Gangneung and Donghae in Gangwon Province, where they watch the first rays of the sun rise on the first day of the year. |
Hong Kong
 |
| Hong Kong people also celebrate the traditional Lunar New Year like Vietnam. Lunar New Year in Hong Kong is celebrated with many activities. |
 |
| A special feature in Hong Kong is the New Year Flower Fair, which lasts from the 25th to the 30th of the Lunar New Year. This fair will also not be without familiar spring plants like in Vietnamese flower markets. Because for Asians, they are the symbols of the best and luckiest things in the new year. Among them, kumquat trees, daffodils and peonies symbolize prosperity and luck, peach trees symbolize traditional romantic beauty, tangerine trees help bring buyers lasting relationships and a happy married life, with many children. |
 |
| On the first day of the new year, Hong Kong people gather at Tsim Sha Tsui harbor to watch dance troupes and Disney characters parade to the beat of music. On the second day of the new year, people flock to Victoria Harbor to enjoy a 20-minute fireworks display - considered one of the most beautiful fireworks displays in the world. |
Chosen
 |
| New Year in Korea is called Nguyen Nhat, which falls on the first day of the first lunar month. On the 30th night of the New Year, every family cleans the house and porch, hangs New Year couplets and pictures, cooks New Year meals and sews New Year clothes. Early in the morning of the 1st, the young and old, men and women, in their new clothes, first perform a "tea ceremony" to pray to their ancestors, then the lower levels wish their superiors a Happy New Year. The superiors return the favor by inviting them to a New Year meal. Close friends wish each other a Happy New Year. |
 |
| In Korea, there are two special activities: "exorcism" and "hair burning". To "exorcism", they weave a straw scarecrow, stuff money into its intestines, and throw it out at the crossroads early on the first day of the Lunar New Year with the intention of driving away evil spirits and welcoming good things. The second is "hair burning": they take the hair that falls out every day and keeps it in a makeup box, and wait until late afternoon on the first day to throw it out the door to drive away evil spirits, ward off epidemics, and pray for peace all four seasons. |
 |
| North Koreans do not have the custom of eating dumpling soup (also known as rice cake soup) like South Koreans. Instead, they often eat songpyeon, a half-moon shaped rice cake, along with other dishes prepared for the ancestral rites on the first day of the lunar month (also known as jesa). |
Singapore
 |
| Singaporeans take the traditional Lunar New Year celebration very seriously. Because nearly 80% of the population of this Lion Island nation is Chinese or of Chinese descent, the rest are Malays (14%), Indians (8%)... also East Asians, so they all celebrate together during these days. |
 |
| Taking place at the same time as the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, the Lunar New Year in Singapore, as well as every year, celebrates the Spring Festival with many different cultural activities. However, to welcome the new year, there are usually 3 outstanding events that attract the most attention: the New Year Lantern Festival, the Singapore River Hongbao Festival and the Chingay Parade along with many other special activities that last for more than a month, from around the last week of December of the old year until the 15th day of the first lunar month. |
Mongolia
 |
| The traditional Lunar New Year in Mongolia is called Tsagaan Sar or White Month. This holiday is based on the Tibetan calendar. On this day, people cleanse their bodies and souls and start a new life with freshness. For Mongolians, Tsagaan Sar is not only a traditional holiday that signals the end of a long and cold winter and the beginning of a new spring, but it is also a time for family reunions and strengthening social ties. |
 |
Tsagaan Sar is considered one of the most important holidays, so Mongolians prepare food for many days. Women in the family will prepare large quantities of buuz (dumplings) and store them in the refrigerator to last for many days. |
 |
| On New Year's Day, everyone gets up early before sunrise, puts on new clothes, lights a fire, eats steamed buns and drinks Airag (fermented mare's milk) and gives gifts to each other. They go to the next house, start visiting the elders first and wish their neighbors a happy new year. The day before New Year's is called Bituun, which is similar to our December 30th. On this day, Mongolians gather to clean their houses to welcome the new year. On Bituun night, all family members gather together to say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new year, to welcome the New Year. This is the night when the sky is completely devoid of moonlight. People eat their fill because they believe that if they are still hungry, they will be hungry throughout the new year. |
Ha Chi
(Synthetic)
