Happy Lunar New Year! Chúc mừng năm mới!

Tonight is the eve of the Lunar New Year (Tet).  It is the biggest holiday here in Vietnam.  Consider it a combination of modern customs, ancient traditions, religion and superstition.  It’s been interesting and fun to see some of the traditions in action.  Here are a few that we saw over the past week.

Some streets are dedicated to red and gold decorations.  It’s a little like that street in your neighborhood that goes all-out at christmas time.

Most homes put up either a blooming peach branch or a fruiting kumquat tree.  They’re called kumquats but they sure look like orange trees.

I wonder if people rotate from year to year, similar to rotating between, say, noble fir, scots pine or douglas fir if putting up a christmas tree?

There are peach blossom stands everywhere.

 

It’s also time for photos taken in the park.  There are many photographers offering their services.  These are from our nearby Hoan Kiem lake.

 

 

The kitchen god Tao must be celebrated.  To do this, 3 goldfish (representing the 3 legs of the kitchen, translated into 1 wife and 2 husbands) are released into water to swim the prayers to heaven.  We saw this continually the week leading up to Tet.  Yes, sometimes people just slowed down on their scooters and tossed the bag with the 3 fish into the lake.  But most stopped and ceremoniously let them out.  Then threw the bag into the lake.

 

Lucky money and ornate paper artifacts are burned all during Tet to send good wishes to ancestors for many reasons.  Some to get out of hell faster, some to honor the newly deceased, all as a means of sending love and respect to the dead.  We saw fires all over the place as we walked about, including outside our kitchen window, every night.

 

Altars are also cleaned up and replenished with new offerings.  This is the altar at our favorite neighborhood phở place.

As I understand it, people believe that what they do on the dawn of Tet will determine their fate for the whole year, hence people always smile and behave as nicely as they can in the hope for a better year.  Not a bad practice, actually.  It was definitely a nice day for us.

This year Tet is celebrated from Feb. 6- 14.  Many shop owners decorate their doors before they leave.  She is putting up sugar cane on her shop.

Doug and I are planning on taking advantage of the reduction in traffic to practice driving a scooter before the crowds return.  Wish us luck!