Tet (Vietnamese New Year) then and now
(Baonghean)For Vietnamese people, Tet Nguyen Dan (Lunar New Year) is the biggest traditional festival, celebrated for thousands of years. While customs and beliefs about Tet have changed somewhat over time, for every Vietnamese person, it remains deeply spiritual and filled with the warmth of family reunion.
In the past, Tet (Lunar New Year) was a time of joyful and vibrant festivals, eagerly awaited and lasting the longest. People believed that Tet was about "eating Tet." The best, finest, and most beautiful things were reserved for the Tet holidays. No matter how poor they were, "on the 30th day of the lunar month, there was always meat hanging in the house," and of course, they couldn't forget a feast to offer to their ancestors on New Year's Eve, to honor their forefathers, and to invite them to celebrate Tet with their descendants.
Nowadays, Tet (Vietnamese New Year) has changed considerably: people no longer talk about "eating Tet" but instead use the phrase "taking a Tet holiday." Life has become more prosperous, so the idea of Tet is no longer about eating delicious food and wearing beautiful clothes. Everyday life provides nutritious meals with plenty of meat, fish, and vegetables available year-round. The fast pace of modern life keeps people busy with work, so now Tet is simply a time for rest, sightseeing, or traveling and enjoying beautiful scenery. However, the beautiful traditional aspects of Vietnamese life, both past and present, remain unchanged when Tet arrives.
The festive atmosphere of Tet begins on the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month, the day of the Kitchen God and Stove God festival. On this day, families spend time shopping for paper hats, clothes, and carp for the Kitchen God and Stove God to cross the Dragon Gate and ascend to Heaven to meet the Jade Emperor. Starting from the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month, every household begins preparing for Tet, cleaning their houses thoroughly, and getting everything ready for the festivities. Nowadays, many worries have been reduced. Perhaps the biggest worry is simply earning money for Tet expenses. Gone are the days of painstakingly raising pigs and chickens, or meticulously wrapping cakes and pounding sausages. If you don't want to crowd the market or stand in long lines at the supermarket checkout to experience the "Tet atmosphere," you can simply pick up the phone and have a complete Tet celebration at home. Even new brides don't have to worry about their mothers-in-law testing their cooking skills for preparing chicken or sticky rice for the New Year's Eve offering, as everything can be ordered in advance. Mothers and daughters no longer have time to constantly monitor the cooking of jam; a quick trip to the supermarket is all they need, from traditional candies and preserves to American chestnuts and Danish butter cookies. In this era of globalization, Tet has also become globalized, with French wine, English whisky, German sausages, Russian salad, and Thai shrimp crackers served alongside Australian beef. Fatty meats have completely disappeared in an age where obesity and high cholesterol are prevalent diseases. Sticky rice cakes, pork sausage, and pickled onions have become essential items that lack the flavor of Tet, but few people touch them when served. Therefore, every family's ancestral altar is fully stocked with sticky rice cakes, five-fruit platter, incense, and flowers. After the New Year's Eve ceremony, the head of the household prays to the household gods to ask permission for their ancestors to return for Tet. Once the ceremony is over, Tet is considered to have truly arrived for the family. Customs such as picking lucky branches, first-footing, going to the Tet market, celebrating longevity, exchanging New Year's greetings, and giving lucky money at the beginning of the year are beautiful traditions that are still maintained today.
In the past, Tet (Vietnamese New Year) was a time for family reunions, with only the "unfortunate" ones having to travel far from home on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. Nowadays, trains and buses are still bustling in the days before and after Tet, still a nightmare for students studying far from home and those working away all year who only return home on the eve of Tet. But today's Tet is also filled with the excitement of long journeys by those with ample means wanting to explore new lands, and by those who are exhausted after a year and want to escape Tet to relax their minds and pace of life. The concept of "being away from home" no longer carries the same melancholy but has added nuances of interesting experiences. Tet, both then and now, is joyful or dreary, depending on each person's perspective, and the way young and old perceive it is also unique.
Over time, the concept of Tet (Vietnamese New Year) has changed, but for every Vietnamese person, Tet is a time to wish for a fresh start, to cast aside the unpleasant things of the past year. Therefore, at the beginning of the new year, everyone is joyful and full of hope for a happy and prosperous future.
Peace
