Vietnamese Tet in foreigners’ hearts

PANO – For the Vietnamese, Tet (Lunar New Year) festival is a special occasion for family members to meet and share happy moments with each other after a year of hard work. For foreigners, the most important traditional festival of the year of Vietnam brings them interesting experiences.

Mr. Miwa Karoku, Director of Japan’s Kyushu National Museum: “The atmosphere of Tet in Vietnam is very animated.”

New year festivals in Vietnam and Japan share some similarities, such as on the first days of the year, family members gather for the Lunar New Year reunion dinners which have become cultural tradition of the two countries.  

Chung (traditional Vietnamese rice cake) cake is an indispensable food in a traditional Tet of Vietnamese people. Coming to Hanoi at the time when the Lunar New Year is coming, I see Vietnamese people everywhere hastily preparing for the most important festival of the year.

I do want to stay in Vietnam longer to experience the spring atmosphere in the country.

Max Hart, an Australian, owner of Kangaroo Coffee Shop in Hanoi: “The Vietnamese traditional Tet has become special and important to me.”

It’s been 24 years since I came to the S-shaped country of Vietnam. I consider the country my second homeland and its traditional Tet has become special and important to me. Since I set foot on the country, I felt in love with it and wanted to settle down here. Now, I am enjoying a happy marriage with a Vietnamese woman.

Tet in Hanoi brings me interesting experiences with cold, foggy and rainy weather, quiet and peaceful streets and traditional Vietnamese dishes, such as chung cake, “gio cha” (Vietnamese pork roll made of pork and traditionally wrapped in banana leaves) and “thit dong” (jellied meat). The tradition of visiting pagodas on the first day of the New Year impresses me, helping me learn more about the love and respect of Vietnamese people for their ancestors. During Tet holidays, my friends and I usually do what the Vietnamese do.

I am also interested in the traditions of “mung tuoi” (the act that the elders give children a red envelope containing lucky money) and “xong dat” (being the first person to enter a house on Tet) of Vietnamese people. On Tets, I usually invite my friends to be the first New Year's callers who are thought to bring luck, peace and good fortune for the coming year.

Mr. Calvin Harris, an American: “I love the family union tradition of Vietnamese people.”

This is the second time I have come to Vietnam on the occasion of Lunar New Year. I love the warm and happy atmosphere of Tet in Vietnam as family members together go shopping, clean the houses, wrap chung cake and visit pagodas to pray for luck and good fortune for the coming year.

The Vietnam’s tradition of visiting relatives’ graves and cleaning gravesites on the Lunar New Year also surprises me. In my country in particular and Western countries in general, people just visit the graves of relatives on their birth and death anniversaries.

The first visit to Vietnam gave me a chance to enjoy some traditional Vietnamese dishes, such as Pho, “nem” (spring rolls), chung cake, “canh mang” (dried bamboo shoot soup) and “xoi gac” (steamed momordica glutinous rice) and learn much about the country, its people and culture.