Sequence of the Tết Celebration

Tết Nguyên Đán, often referred to simply as Tết is the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. It is the most important Vietnamese holidays.

Prior to Tết, homes are cleaned and painted. New clothes are purchased, old debts are paid, and unfinished businesses are finished as much as possible. Sweeping and scrubbing is done in advance as tradition discourages cleaning during Tết.

Two items required for the proper enjoyment of Tết are flowering branches and the kumquat bush. Kumquat trees are brought into the home. These trees represent the family and the hope of good fortune in the new year. Trees are selected with care, to insure the leaves are healthy, there is ripe fruit and green fruit ready to ripen.

Homes are also decorated with the yellow blossoms of the Hoa Mai in the south while the rosy peach blossoms of the Hoa Đào are used in the North. The blossoms represent the spirit of Tết. They symbolize prosperity and well-being for the family. It is believed that the longer the blossoms last the more prosperous the family will be in the coming year.

During this time the Kitchen God departs the home to report on the family. The Kitchen God (Ông Táo or Mandarin Táo) is also called the Hearth God, the Stove God or the Household God. This god who was privy to the family's most private business and intimate secrets for the ending year, returns to Heaven to make his report to the Jade Emperor. This report includes the year's activities of the household in which he has lived. On the 23rd day of the 12th month, a farewell and thank you dinner is given to the Kitchen God by the household. The Kitchen God will need a week for his mission to Heaven.

Deceased relatives are also remembered during Tết. Families build alters with photographs, flowers, incense, and food. People typically visit the gravesites of deceased loved ones.

Shoppers swarm the streets at temporary Tết stalls that have sprung up. Everything needed for the celebration from food to decorations is at hand and in abundance at these Tết markets.

One must purchase the sugared fruits, bánh chưng and the colorful decorations before the afternoon of Tết.

Giao Thừa

As midnight approaches, all eyes maintain a close look on clocks and watches. The Giao Thừa ritual occurs at that most sacred moment in time. At midnight on the last day of the year, every Vietnamese family whispers similar fervent prayers. Bells ring and drums beat in temples. The old year gives over its mandate to the New Year. The words Giao Thừa (Giao means "Intertwined" and Thừa means "a moment") mean the intertwined moment between the new coming year and the old passing year. It marks the magical transition time from one year to another. Those who practice Buddhism will pray in the pagoda.

In the Gia Tiên (family ancestor) ritual or calling of the ancestors, invitations are extended to the deceased relatives to visit for a few days in the world of the living family. They are lured home and kept happy until they leave. The head of the household lights incense and folds hands at heart level in the position of prayer. The prayer may proceed as follows: "In the year of ... and the date of ... we would like to make these offerings and invite all of our ancestors to join in eating Tết with us".

The past generations are invited to share the family's joys and concerns, to enjoy a meal with the living, to catch up on the family news and to lavish riches and honors on their descendants.

"I pray to the Heavenly King, the Jade Emperor, to his assistants and to the Earth God and the guardian spirit and to any other spirits present. On behalf of the family, we offer you incense, fruit and flowers. We are all here to make these offerings so that the next year will be free of disasters and harmful occurrences and that the family will prosper. Please bless us all, young and old, with happiness, prosperity and long life. (Here he might mention some events of the past year such as the birth of a child, someone's new employment or the successful entrance of a child into a good school). Please forgive us any transgressions we may have unknowingly committed against you or others".

Bowing motions, called Lễ, are performed at least three times and the ceremony ends when all have prostrated themselves (or in more modern families, folded hands and prayed) before the altar. After the "money for the dead" and other paper gifts are burnt in the courtyard, the family watches the ashes dance away on warm currents of air, a sign that the dead have received their gifts. The spiritual presence of the ancestors will be palpable during the days of Tết.

In recent times, a new tradition has evolved to celebrate the important evening of the new year. Those who are not at home praying at this momentous time may be socializing with friends. In the cities, there will be community fireworks displays that will draw the young from their homes into the square or park. Although firecrackers are now illegal in Vietnam, some kind of loud noises will be made. It can be the banging of cans, the use of electronic popping firecrackers or human voices whooping it up. People will break off branches and twigs that contain newly sprouted leaves to bring a sense of freshness and vitality into their home. This follows a Buddhist tradition of bringing fresh new leaves and "fortune bearing buds" into the home from the pagoda.

First morning or Head day

is reserved for the nuclear family, that is, the husband's household. Immediate family members get together and celebrate with the husband's parents. A younger brother, if the parents are not alive, will visit his older sibling. Faraway sons and daughters journey to be with their parents on this day. Children anticipate a ritual called Mừng Tuổi, or the well wishing on the achievement of one more year to one's life. With both arms folded in front of their chest in respect, they thank their grandparents for their birth and upbringing.

Reciprocally, the grandparents will impart words of advice or wisdom to their grandchildren, encouraging them to study seriously, to live in harmony with others. Adults will make silent promises to themselves to improve their lives, habits and relationships in the coming year. The children accept small gifts, usually crisp bills. Ideally, part of the gifts will be saved for future "investment", and part spent for Tết amusements. The words on the little red envelope in which the bill may be tucked read: Respectful wishes for the New Year. When there was a king ruling Vietnam, the mandarins of the royal court formally wished the King and Queen, "Happiness as vast as the southern sea; longevity as lasting as the southern mountains". Each trade and professional guild in Vietnam has a founder or guardian spirit and on this or one of the next several days, the craft workers will make offerings to their guild ancestor.

The family displays the offerings of food on the altar table for the first meal for the ancestors since they have returned to the world of the living. The head of the family, dressed in fresh clothes, steps respectfully in front of the family altar and presents the offerings of food, liquor, cigarettes, betel fixings, flowers and paper gold and silver. He lights three sticks of incense, kneels, joins hands in front of his chest, bows his head and prays. The names of the deceased of the family up to the fifth generation are whispered as they are invited to participate in the feast prepared for them.

After the ceremony, the entire family sits down to enjoy the meal typically consisting of steamed chicken, bamboo shoot soup, bánh chưng and fresh fruits. They reminisce with their ancestors. The Vietnamese do not say "celebrate" when speaking of Tết; the words "to eat" are used as in the expression, "Will you eat Tết with your family?" or "Where will you eat Tết this year?" It does not refer to the filling of one's stomach, although in the old days, when hunger was a constant problem, Tết time was a time of plenty during which one could eat one's full. "To eat" here means more to be nourished by, or to partake in the mutual communion with others, a spiritual eating or being nourished.

There is a Vietnamese saying related to ancestor worship: "Trees have roots; water has a source; when drinking from the spring, one must remember the source". Thanks are offered to those ancestors who labored long ago to dig irrigation channels and remove mountains for this generation to have an easier life. The present is only one link in the cycle of coming back to the past as one looks to the future.

The second day of Tết

is for visiting the wife's family and close friends. Some shops have opened and a few lottery stands are busy selling chances to people who feel lucky. Everyone is out on the street parading around in their new clothes.

On the third day of Tết

The circle of connections becomes larger and is extended to the broader community outside the family by visits to teachers, bosses or a helpful physician. The Vietnamese visit teachers and physicians although long out of school and long cured of their illness. This may be the time to have one's fortune told to see what the coming year will bring. These days in Vietnam, there are fortune tellers using computer software. People are also especially interested in the significance of their first dream of the new year.

The evening of the third day marks the departure of the ancestors by burning votive objects such as gold and silver, for them to take with them on their journey back to Heaven.

Now the connections to the world beyond the family can take place. The non-family member who will be the first visitor is carefully chosen. The "first footer" is an auspicious guest who is considered to be good luck for the family. The first non-family visitor to the house brings in the year's luck. This figure's karma will charm the household for the entire year and determine the luck of the family. It is customary to invite a respected person to visit at that time, so that this turn of luck is not left to fate. This person, whose aura is believed capable of promoting the fortune of the household in the following year, is usually someone healthy, successful and prosperous. Some Vietnamese lock their doors to all chance visitors until after the visit of the chosen "first footer".

On the fourth day

Banks and shops reopen. Transactions, although slower, will be conducted more cheerfully than usual. Offices open and work resumes. Careful attention is paid to the resumption of activities. The first outing is the first time in the New Year that a family leaves their home. A propitious time is chosen in advance for this outing and one sometimes asks the advice of fortunetellers.

Formerly, scholars initiated their new brushes and paper with a small ceremony with the wearing of new clothes. This also requires an auspicious hour. The theme of the proverb or poem is considered carefully and newly purchased high-grade paper was used. Today's students are less formal in their initiation rites, but most enjoy a new pen and a fresh notebook for the New Year. Everyone determines to do what he or she can to help fate along to make the next year most successful.

In the countryside, there are rituals to enliven the land out of its winter's rest. The Rites of Động Thổ activate the soil to bring it alive from its sacred rest. When there was a king in Vietnam, he symbolically initiated the harrowing of the first furrow of the planting season in a royal rite.

A hundred years ago, on Hàng Buồm Street, a ceremony was performed right after Tết called the Beating of the Spring Ox. This ceremony initiated the breaking open of the agricultural land and chased away the winter cold. A ceramic image of the ox was beaten with sticks until it broke into pieces. Everyone scramble to grab and take home a piece of the sacred ox.

On the fifteenth day of Tết (called Rằm Tháng Giêng)

Onhe first full moon, there are ceremonies in Buddhist temples. This is considered the most auspicious day of the Buddhist year. "Paying homage to Buddha all year long is not as effective as praying on the 15th day of the first lunar month". The devout flock into pagodas, their eyes stinging with the blue haze of incense. After prayers, shared blessed offerings from the temple keeper are stuffed into bags carried with them for that purpose. Over the years, this Buddhist sacred day has transformed into a holiday of other cults.

It is also called Tết Trạng Nguyên or the feast of the first laureate. There is a legend associated with its beginnings: the emperor once staged a banquet on the full moon to which the most prominent scholars of the kingdom were invited. They drank exquisite liquor and each man composed a formal poem on a theme chosen by the emperor. On that day, many families celebrate Tết all over again by eating bánh chưng.

This is also called the Little New Year or full moon New Year and celebrated by farmers following an indigenous practice of welcoming Spring at the first full moon. Later, it became infused with Buddhist meanings.

The Vietnamese traditionally celebrated Tết from the fifteenth day of the twelfth month to the fifteenth day of the first month.

Adapted from: http://thingsasian.com/story/happy-lunar-new-year-chuc-mung-nam-moi