Today is a special day for Vietnamese, this is the last day of 2021, tomorrow is the first day of the Vietnamese New Year.

Tet, or Lunar New Year is viewed as one of the most popular festival in Vietnam. It is celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year, taking place from the first day of the first month of the Vietnamese calendar (around late January or early February) until at least the third day. Tet is a special occasion for people gather around their family, express their respect to their ancestors and welcome a happy new year. Tet occupies an important role in Vietnamese culture, so are the preparation for the special days and the customs people always carry out in Tet.

The preparation for Tet often begins before one or two weeks. First, people frequently spend a few days cleaning their houses, polishing furnishings and bronze incense burner, or even repainting the walls. They want everything in the houses must be clean and clear to get good lucks in New Year and get rid of bad ones in the old year. Moreover, houses are garnished with colorful lights and parallel sentences. Besides, many Vietnamese prepare for Tet by cooking special holiday foods, such as square rice cake, dried young bamboo soup and pickle. Furthermore, they also buy other kinds of food like cakes, candies, jam. These are extremely delicious and contain culinary culture in Vietnam.

In addition to the busy preparation for Lunar New Year, these very first days of the year are occasions to everyone to have relax and rest time after a hard-working and occupied schedule year. Hence there are many interesting activities happen in Tet. For instance, in some big cities, people organize concerts and performance firework at the countdown moment of the New Year’s Eve to welcome a Happy New Year. On the other hand, there is something that must be avoided on these days. For example, sweeping during Tet is taboo and considered to be unlucky since it symbolizes sweeping away the good lucks. This is the reason why they always clean the house before the New Year. It is also taboo for anyone who experienced a recent loss of a family member to visit anyone else’s house during Tet.

Tet is a special and meaningful occasion to all Vietnamese. It is the time for people reunite with their family after a long time not seeing each other and take a rest after a hard-working year. To every Vietnamese, Lunar New Year is always a tradition that no one can break down, and they will do everything to protect and develop it.

I hope that everyone will have a lot of luck in the new year.