Vietnam FESTIVAL MUST-SEE: TET NGUYEN DAN EXPERIENCE T E T NGUY E N DAN

Tet takes place from the first day of the first month of the Vietnamese calendar, starting on February 16, 2018

While it coincides with the Chinese New Year, which is celebrated in so many countries in Asia, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year is by far the most rambunctious and colourful – and most culturally significant – festival in the Vietnamese calendar. The Vietnamese prepare for Tet by cooking special meals, such as rice cake ( banh chung and banh giay), and dried young bamboo soup ( canh mang). They also conduct a thorough spring clean of their homes. It is custom to visit relatives and friends on xong nha (the first day of the new year), and to pay respects to the ancestors. It’s a time of big family reunions. Families also put up a cay neu, a five metre-long bamboo pole which functions much in the same way as a Christmas tree: It is decorated with good luck charms and trinkets. Like mandarin oranges are used in Chinese customs, the Vietnamese also introduce fruit trees to their homes during the holiday season: apricot blossoms in the central and southern regions, and peach blossoms in the north. Tet is the first day of spring in Vietnam, and so it’s also sometimes referred to as hoi xuan (“spring festival”).

While home, people pay respects to their ancestors, and also clean graves. Wealthier families enlist Mua Lanor dragon dancing troupes to perform in their homes, and public performances are also held. The streets are a cacophony of firecrackers, drums, bells and gongs – noise aimed at scaring off evil spirits. Parades are held with masked performers and traditional dancers, and there are often fireworks displays.

Wealthier families enlist Mua Lanor dragon dancing troupes to perform in their homes WHEN WHERE HOW