Vietnamese Tết
Posted on Tuesday, 28 January 2025 under Culture and Belonging
Vietnamese Tết celebrations begin today, 29 January, marking the first day of the Vietnamese new year.
In Vietnam, Tết is the start of a week-long public holiday, where Vietnamese people meet with their families, and visit and clean shrines and graves.
Before Tết, people prioritise cleaning their homes, paying off debt, and buying new clothing and supplies, so they can begin the new year fresh. Homes and streets are decorated with red and gold, as these colours are believed to bring good fortune.
A popular food eaten during Tết is Banh Chung, tightly packed sticky rice with meat filling or bean spread, which is wrapped in banana leaves to preserve it for the week of Tet. Candied fruit is served as a snack for visitors.
Traditionally, all Vietnamese people add one year to their age during Tết, and don't age on the day that they were born.
Children are given red envelopes with money inside, with an even number of notes for luck. While gambling is illegal in Vietnam, children are allowed to play games with their money over Tết to test their new year’s luck. One popular game is bầu cua cá cọp, which is played using six dice and a game board. It's seen as a sign of maturity when children begin giving these red envelopes instead of receiving them.
People also buy new trees for their homes to symbolise the fruitfulness the family hopes for in the year ahead – these can be bamboo, peach, kumquat, and orange trees, and yellow Mai flowers are popular in central and southern Vietnam.
The most common greeting to wish Happy Lunar New Year in Vietnamese is ‘Chúc mừng Năm Mới’ (chook moong num moy), which means “happy new year”. You may also hear people saying ‘Cung Chúc Tân Xuân’, which means ‘best wishes for the new spring’.
