Some interesting things about Tet Holiday

#TetHoliday #Facts

🌼🌼 Tet (or Lunar New Year) is the most important holiday in Vietnamese culture, this is a day for Vietnamese people to return to their hometown and reunite with their families. It is also an opportunity for everyone to look back at the whole past year and welcome the new year with lots of expectations with their loved ones. Everyone loves Tet and looks forward to it, but not everyone knows all these interesting things that I’ll share with you below.

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1. Why is it called “Tet Nguyen Dan”

Have you ever wondered why we call it “Tet Nguyen Dan” yet? According to the ethnologists, the original transcription of the phrase "Tet Nguyen Dan", which is used to refer to an important celebration to welcome the new year according to the Vietnamese or some other Asian countries, is "Tiet Nguyen Dan". According to the Chinese language, the word "Tet" comes from Chinese characters and is read according to Sino-Vietnamese phonetics as "Tiet", is the climate divided by countries belonging to the wet rice agricultural civilization to serve the needs of farming, "Nguyen" means the new beginning and "Dan" means early morning. So when reading correctly, it should be "Tiet Nguyen Dan", which can fully express the wishes of Vietnamese people for a new prosperous year.

2. The meaning of Lunar New Year in Vietnamese culture

In Vietnam, Lunar New Year has a profound human significance, expressing the longevity of life and human's desire for harmony between Heaven and Earth. It is an expression of the relationship between human and nature in the spirit of agricultural culture. It also symbolizes a solid connection between families and villages in the ethnic community, between people and their great faith in God, may the divine protection bring them another good year, another good harvest,... People do believe that the happiness of the first days of the year is the signal for a good new year. The old year has passed with bad luck and the new year begins to bring people positive beliefs in life. If the old year is good, the luck will last through the next year. In this sense, Tet is also a holiday of optimism and hope.

According to Vietnamese beliefs, Tet is the day of reunification, Village love will be widened and more durable to create a better society. Vietnamese people also choose Tet as an opportunity to give thanks. Children give thanks to parents, parents thank grandparents, ancestors, staffs thank their boss for helping them the whole year,... And on the contrary, leaders also give their thanks to employees through receptions or gifts to celebrate Tet… That is some of the many things that make Tet so special in the mind of every Vietnamese person.

3. Where does Tet come from? And the first Tet started when?

The origin of the New Year is still being disputed, but many people mistakenly think the Lunar New Year originated from China through the 1000-year domination of the North. Nowadays, many studies have shown that the origins of the Lunar New Year come from the Vietnamese soil itself. Through the folk story "Banh chung banh day" symbolizes the concept of 'Round Heaven - Square Land' of Vietnamese people working in agriculture, it is proved that the Lunar New Year originated from our country, before the three emperor's period in Chinese history.

Khong Tu - the founder of Confucianism, as well as the most eminent professor and philosopher in East Asia, wrote in one of his books: “I don't know what Tet is, hearing somewhere that is the name of a big festival of the Man (refer to the old Vietnamese people), they dance like crazy all the time; eat, drink and play in those days”. The book “Giao Chi Ky” also has a paragraph that says: “The old Vietnamese people often gather together to dance, sing, eat and drink for many days to celebrate a new planting season, not only farmers but also all people there, mandarins and the cave lords also participate in this festival". Thus, it can be said that Tet Nguyen Dan originated from Vietnam later imported and developed by the Chinese as today.

4. Some interesting traditional customs of Tet holiday

🍀 On Tet holiday, when preparing the altar of ancestors, almost every Vietnamese family will leave two sugar cane on either side of that altar. It is not all of a sudden that there is this custom, according to which, these two sugar cane will be used by ancestors to carry the gifts the descendants offer to the underworld after the "tien ong vai" ceremony.

🍀 In some areas, people often carry clean water to the jars until the water overflows during Tet. They believe that this custom is to wish the new year a fortune.

🍀 On this holiday, every Vietnamese family prepares a tray of five fruits to be placed on the altar with five different fruits. According to the conception, the fifth year of the statue of the five elements (Metal - Wood - Water - Fire - Earth) corresponds to human destiny. At the same time, odd numbers are said to bring good luck and growth.

🍀 In Vietnam, Tet is indispensable for peach blossoms or decorative apricot flowers in the house. According to ancient beliefs, there used to be two gods residing in the cherry blossom tree to protect the people from the demons' disturbance. Just see peaches, the devil will be scared. Therefore, on Tet days, when the two gods went up to meet Ngoc Hoang, people protected themselves by breaking peach branches to put in jars. The peach tree helps dispel the devil, the red symbolizes luck, so red peach blossoms are often indispensable in the Northern people's house on Tet holiday.

🍀 The custom of celebrating the first year of the year (lucky money) comes from a Chinese legend. Accordingly, to chase away the demons that often appear on New Year's Eve to scare young children, Bat Tien transforms into eight coins, put in red paper bags by parents and placed under the child's pillow. Since then, adults often put money in red bags (red bags), lucky money for children with wishes for good health and growth.

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And there are many many other interesting stories about Tet holiday that you may be interested in on the internet. So this Tet holiday, in addition to enjoying these wonderful times with your family and friends, take a little time to learn more about it if you can, because it will help you understand more about the culture and true meaning of the biggest festivals in our country. I do believe it is well worth your time!

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