Celebration

Like every country in the world, the most important celebration in Vietnam is New Years.

Vietnam is a South East Asian country; thus, the New Year is based on the lunar calendar. Vietnamese New Year is called Tet. “The word is a shortened form of Tết Nguyên Ðán (which is Sino-Vietnamese word for ‘Feast of the First Morning of the First Day’.”

Tet, which occurs between January 21 and February 20, celebrates the arrival of spring. This year, 2019, it occurred on February 5th. There are many countries in the world that celebrate the Lunar New Year on the same day such as Korea, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Laos, etc.

Nearly 100 million Vietnamese celebrate Tet annually. Most are given 7 days off work by the government to participate in the celebrations. As the date approaches, everyone from government employees to factory workers start preparing for their Tet family reunion.

Vietnamese living overseas, also partake in the standard preparations. Some people come back to the homeland to visit their relatives and celebrate Tet. If they stay in their newly adopted country, they will get together with friends and have a small party.

What do Vietnamese do to celebrate Tet?

A typical Vietnamese family has many important things to do before they can celebrate.
First, they go to the cemetery to paint and repair the gravestones of their grandparents and relatives. Second, they clean and decorate their house, and third, they buy or make themselves many different traditional dishes. Two of the most important dishes are Bánh chung and Bánh dày.

On the evening of the New Year, a special tray is prepared by all families. Each tray must have bánh chung and bánh dày, special cakes, 5 kinds of fruit, apricot blossoms and a candle. The tray is usually brought to the front of the house and placed on a table by the father. All the family members, expect those under 3, gather together to pray to their superior for a happy and successful New Year. A young man may pray to meet the girl of his dreams, a young woman may pray to pass all of her university exams, a young father may pray for a job promotion and a young mother may pray for a new home.
After the ceremony, all the family members go to church or pagoda to pray for a while longer. Then, they go home to sleep.

On the first day of the new year, all the children gather at their parent’s house to make wishes for them. For example, they wish them good health, happiness and a long life. While the children are making wishes, the parents give lucky money to their children or grandchildren. Everyone wishes each other a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year.

Tet on Prince Edward Island, Canada

All of the Vietnamese people living on Prince Edward Island come together to celebrate Tet in Charlottetown annually. This year, we had around 400 people register and 450 actually take part in the Tet ceremony. Most excitingly, guests such as Members of Parliament, the Mayor and social media publicists came to the event too.

The community leaders created a committee to organize the volunteers. One group was asked to take care of the singing and dancing program. One group was asked to take care of traditional stage performances, and another group was asked to take care of the food.

The community leaders had a hard time finding a place to host the affair because we needed a very large space to accommodate everyone. Finally, they secured The Prince Edward Island Convention Center at the Marriott hotel and made sure all the last-minute details were taken care of. The equipment and signs were ready to be moved to the venue the day before, and more than a hundred volunteers came to do the set up. Everyone was in a great mood despite all the work that had to be done. While working, all the volunteers talked about their families and shared pictures of their homes in Vietnam.

My family and I were eager to wear our best clothes and come very early to meet people and let the children play folk games before the ceremony. At 5:00 pm, when the main ceremony was scheduled to begin, all the guests settled in the auditorium. They were all dressed in very beautiful costumes. The honoured guests brought souvenirs for the leader of the community, and the leader of the community gave them gifts in exchange. In addition, speeches were made by several important community members. We felt united and proud to be part of this event. It helped to relieve our homesickness.

Needless to say, the ceremony was very exciting, and everyone stayed until the end of the program. Outside it snowed but inside we felt very warm.

I would like to thank all the people who came and participated in celebrating traditional Tet for Vietnamese people living in PEI.