Tet is the biggest and the most sacred festival. It is the most attractive to a majority of the Vietnamese.
Tet
falls on a time when the old year is over and the New Year comes by
lunar calendar. This is also the time when the cycle of the universe
finishes: winter ends and spring, the season of birth of all living
things, comes.
Tet
is an occasion for pilgrims and family reunions. It is a time when one
pays respect to his/her ancestors and grandparents who have brought up
him/her. It is an occasion when everyone sends each other best wishes
for a new year, stops thinking about unhappy things and says good things
about each other.
On the 23rd
day of the twelfth month by lunar calendar, there is a rite to see Tao
Quan (Kitchen God) off. The rite to say goodbye to the old year is held
on the 30th or 29th day (if that month has only 29
days) of the twelfth month by lunar calendar. The rite to welcome the
New Year is held at midnight that day. The rite to see off ancestral
souls to return to the other world is often held on the 3rd day of the first month by lunar calendar when the Tet holidays finish and everybody goes back to work.
There are various customs practiced during Tet such as ancestral worshipping, visiting a person’s house on the first day of the new year, wishing Tet
wishes, giving lucky money to young children and old people, wishing
longevity to the oldest people, opening rice paddies or opening a shop.
