Vietnamese New Year "Tet Nguyen Dan" (Tet Holiday)

In East Asian countries, most religious and national holidays are tied to a calendar based on the monthly cycles of the moon's phases Celebrations are held in compliance with folk traditions and rituals, which are accompanied by visits to temples and other shrines related to the cult of ancestors In China, Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Tibet, the New Year begins to be celebrated on the new moon of the first month of the year and ends 2 weeks later on the full moon This public holiday, during which days off are provided, is considered the most important in a series of other celebrations It is traditionally celebrated at home by families whose children will receive gifts of clothes and money in red envelopes (“lucky ones”) The celebration includes obligatory honoring of elderly people and visiting the graves of ancestors Vietnamese New Year, Tết Nguyên Đán ("The Very First Morning Festival"), like Chinese, is celebrated on the 1st or 3rd day of the first month of the lunar calendar Tet Holiday is not only a family celebration with meetings around a hearty table This is a time of festivals, fairs and carnival processions with the lion dance, which is considered the personification of strength and courage in the national culture The main color of the Vietnamese New Year is red It is believed to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck For the same purpose, for 2 weeks, the Vietnamese take to the streets of cities and villages with drums, gongs and bells At home, in the process of preparing for the holiday, they clean and throw away everything unnecessary, symbolically saying goodbye to the failures of the past year Vietnamese people decorate their homes with red paper lanterns, which are released into the sky on the last day of Tết Nguyên Đán The New Year's tree is not a Christmas tree, but a kei-neu - a 6-meter bamboo stick, which is decorated with amulets, rooster feathers, cactus branches, origami in the form of fish and tree leaves Traditional dishes on the table are pies of various shapes made from glutinous rice, pork and beans Mâm ngũ quả ("five fruits"), a symbol of wealth, is placed on the ancestral altar The set includes orange, pomelo, persimmon, bananas, peaches, tangerines, etc In South Vietnam, the composition of fruits on the platter for offering to ancestors is more diverse than in the north of the country The holiday is divided into 3 periods On the first, Tatnyen, which begins 2 weeks before the celebration, it is customary to renovate the altar of ancestors, pay off debts, and buy new clothes for children Before the New Year, they are busy preparing food and decorating the house, preparing food and waiting for the arrival of relatives During Gyaothya (Gyao Tha), the second period of Tet Holiday, offerings are made to the spirits, prayers are recited in front of the altar and greetings are exchanged In honor of the holiday, fireworks and folk festivals are held Tannyen, the third period of national identity, lasts 7 days They include visits to guests' houses, visits to old teachers, relatives, colleagues and friends This tradition helps unite people, just like family prayers in the temple Tannien ends the festival with the fall of a bamboo structure in the shape of a kay-neu, symbolizing the end of the Vietnamese New Year celebrations and the beginning of the work week