Izzy_Cool
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Whats it like?
INSANE!
Imagine rolling ALL of the big US holidays into one and celebrating it for a week. That's what Tet is like over here.
Forget about work, the entire country effectively shuts down for the first 2-3 days of Tet, so you learn to stock up on vital things, especially common drugs (panadol, imodium, etc).
You will spend a few days visitng your friends and family members. You will eat like it's Thanksgiving and drink like its St. Patrick's Day. Beware of the Banh Chung, because while tasty, it's made of "glutinous rice" and the operative word is "glue". I ate an entire one by myself 16 years ago and didn't crap for a week...but it WAS tasty. I've since learned to eat only ONE piece...:)
During Tet, almost every male becomes a candidate for a room at the Betty Ford Clinic as its bottoms up (100%) with beer, Johnnie Walker, rice wine (aka, Vietnamese white lightning) and even Cognac.
The government outlawed fireworks in 1994 because kids kept blowing off their fingers and dogs were going mental. Ya gotta remember that fireworks over here are serious things, not those lady finger ones or black cat crap. We're talking M-80s, Block Busters and Cherry Bombs on a roll of 100 or more. When they go off, the trees shake.
You really should bring your parents home for a visit. Vietnam has changed a thousand-fold since their time here and they would be proud to see the progress we've made. (I'm not Vietnamese, but I've been here for 17 years, so I can say "we've" I guess)
Chuc Mung Nam Moi to you and your family.
All the best for the coming new year! |
skypilot7777
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I live in Saigon now and have for many years. TET is fun if you go to the parades at night in the center of the city. They are very colorful and millions of lights. Traffic is always a problem in Saigon and Vietnam in general. Most stores close for a period of ten days but resturants, and may do stay open. People are very friendly epecially during TET new year. The Vietnamese people believe that if there is trouble, anger, fights on the first day of new year then one will have a bad year so people are careful to anger or insult at this time. The Vietnamese people are some of the nicest, friendliest, and smartest folks you will find anywhere in the world despite past war stories and footage for I was living in Vietnam from 1969 to 1975 also, and moved back in 1987 so I have seen many Tet newyears. Crime is low except for like purse snatchers but thats found in any city in the world but low to none on violent crimes in Vietnam. Enjoy your trip back to your homeland for its a special place.... |
Active Travel Vietnam
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TET - Vietnamese and Chinese Lunar New Year, is the most important Festival of Vietnamese people.
This scared Festival sometimes between late January or early February (depend on Lunar Calendar ) and Tet has become so familiar to the Vietnamese that when Spring arrives. The Vietnamese, wherever they may be, are all thrilled and excited with the advent of Tet, and they feel an immense nostalgia, wishing to come back to their homeland for a family reunion and a taste of the particular flavors of the Vietnamese festivities. Although officially a three-day affair, festivities may continue for a week or more with every effort made to indulge in eating, drinking, and enjoyable social activities. It is also a time for family reunions, and for paying respect to ancestors and the elders. Gifts of food are made to friends, neighbors and relatives in the days before Tet.
The Tet of the New Year is, above all, is an opportunity for the household genies to meet, those who have helped during the year, namely the Craft Creator, the Land Genie and the Kitchen God. Tet is also an opportunity to invite and welcome deceased ancestors back for a family reunion with their descendants to join the family's Tet celebrations. Finally, Tet is a good opportunity for family members to meet. This custom has become sacred and secular and, therefore, no matter where they are or whatever the circumstances, family members find ways to come back to meet their loved ones, gather for a dinner of traditional foods like "Bánh Chưng" (a square cake made of sticky rice stuffed with beans and pork), "Măng" (a soup of boiled bamboo shoots and flied pork) and "Xôi Gấc" (orange sticky rice). This is followed by a visit to the local pagodas.
Everyone is in a rush to get a haircut, buy new clothes, spruce up their homes, visit friends, settle outstanding debts, and stock up on traditional Tet delicacies. Businesses hang festive red banners which read "Chuc Mung Nam Moi" (Happy New Year) and city streets are fes¬toned with colored lights. Stalls spring up all over town to sell Mut (candied fruits and jams), traditional cakes, and fresh fruit and flowers. Certain markets sell nothing but cone-shaped kumquat bushes. Others sell flowering peach trees, symbols of life and good fortune which people bring into their homes to celebrate the coming of spring. As vendors pour into the City with peach trees strapped to their bicycles, the streets look like moving pink forests.
The "five-fruit tray" on the ancestral altar during the Tet Holidays symbolizes the admiration and gratitude of the Vietnamese to Heaven and Earth and their ancestors, and demonstrates their aspiration for a life of plenty. Legend said alot of theories but in a simpler way, the five fruits represent the quintessence that Heaven and Earth bless humans. This is one of the general perceptions of life of the Vietnamese, which is "When taking fruit, you should think of the grower".
Coming to Vietnam during the season of the Tet festival, the visitor is engulfed in an ocean of colorful flowers. Visiting flower shows, contemplating the buds and blooms, and purchasing blossoms represents one of the distinct Vietnamese cultural characteristics. The peach (in the North ) and the apricot blossoms (in the South) are symbols of the Vietnamese Tet. The warm pink of the peach could very well match the dry cold of the North, but the hot South seems to be flourishing in the riot of the yellow of the apricot. The mandarin is symbolic of good fortune and, therefore, people tend to choose the little plants laden with fruit, big and orange, and verdant leaves for a longer display.
The Giao Thua 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.
After the Giao Thua is the start of the New Year with many customs and practices, amusements and entertainment, all of a distinct Vietnamese folk culture. If you have an opportunity to visit Vietnam during the Tet Holidays and to welcome the Tet Festivities, together with the Vietnamese people, you will surely be profoundly impressed by the distinct traditional culture that is rich in national identity. More ...http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-ZmaTjZwweLLUDj7I8qzJ0wXHttZaAh7QTyAC |
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