Like some other Asian country, the Lunar New Year holiday, known as Nguyen Dan in Vietnam, is an important occasion in Vietnam.
Nguyen Dan is the formal name of the Lunar New Year holiday in Vietnam. The name can be roughly translated as The new morning. In everyday life, the holiday is casually called Tet meaning holiday. The Nguyen Dan holiday is special because it marks the beginning of a new year as well as a new life cycle.
The preparation for the Nguyen Dan holiday takes place throughout the last month of the Lunar year. Houses, offices, streets are cleaned up and decorated. The resting place of the dead are tidied. Flowers, bonsai, traditional pictures and other ornaments are on sale. Foods and drinks are stored for family use as well as for the rituals. Adults put lucky money into red envelopes to distribute later in the holiday. Those who live away from their hometowns race for train or air tickets to visit their families in the holiday because supply hardly satisfies demand. Excitement builds up each day with the preparation.
Some significant ancient rituals related to the Nguyen Dan holiday are still held with some modification to fit with the modern life. On the twenty third day of the last month of the year, a family ceremony honouring the Tao Quan (Kitchen God) of the house takes place. It is believed that each household has a Tao Quan who watches over its business and he departs for heaven to present his annual report to the Jade Emperor that day. A living carp is offered to the kitchen god to be his “horse” and the fish is released after the incense burns out. In the countryside, a New Year Pole, a bamboo stripped bare and decorated with amulets and bells, is raised in front of every house to drive away evil spirits and mark the way home for the ancestors' spirit. On the New Year's Eve, every family prepares a small banquet to welcome the spirits of the dead members who are believed to return to stay with the living during the holiday.
Customarily, the Nguyen Dan holiday lasts the first three days of the Lunar Year. During these three days, numerous things are avoided lest bad luck will haunt the whole year. People refrain from arguments and anger to ensure harmony and peacefulness for the coming year. Needlework should not be done because it symbolizes hardship. Things must not be broken or business will fail. Most peculiarly, houses should not be swept because sweeping the house will “sweep” the God of Fortune out of the family. Besides the avoidance, there are things should be done to increase good fortune such as choosing the suitable firstfooter for the year, giving and receiving lucky money or bringing home green boughs on New Year's Eve. Nowadays, those customs are not observed so strictly as before. Nevertheless, the belief that the Nguyen Dan holiday is the holiday of joy and harmony is ever the same.
In modern time, the Nguyen Dan holiday is generally viewed as the time for family and friends whom one may neglect in busy everyday life. People try to go back to their hometowns to spend the holiday with other living or dead family members. Old friends visit each other or at least send small gifts and greeting cards. Some families take this time to travel. All in all, the Vietnamese celebrate the Nguyen Dan holiday with the same enthusiasm as their ancestors did hundreds of years ago.
