Well, to start off, I would like to describe Tet, which is the most crucial national festival of Vietnam. In Vietnamese culture, Tet marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year. It usually lasts three days but celebrations continue for at least the first week of the New Year.
Moving on to the next question, in my opinion, the primary reason for its appearance is that Tet is a special occasion for family reunions as well as for celebrating the arrival of spring.
To celebrate the New Year, we do lots of things together. Before New Year’s Eve, we prepare some local specialties, such as Chung cake, Vietnamese sausage and dried candied fruits to worship our ancestors and then enjoy during Tet. Houses are thoroughly cleaned out and then nicely furnished in the hopes of getting rid of the past year’s bad lucks. Additionally, many families usually decorate their houses with Kumquat trees, Apricot or Peach blossom and parallel sentences that are believed to bring luckiness, happiness and prosperity to them in the New Year.
All members in a family gather together and have parties to ring in the New Year. During Tet, there are a lot of customs practiced, such as giving lucky money to children, visiting friends’ houses and going to churches, temples or pagodas to make good prays for their family.
If there’s time left, I would like to explain its importance to our culture and me. With Vietnamese, Tet is vital as it’s a very meaningful tradition to welcome the New Year. And it’s more important because Tet is the time for families and relatives to gather under the same roof for rekindling love and bonding. For me, I always long for Tet as it’s the longest holiday, which can help me recover my battery after a long working year.