The Meaning & Celebration of Tết

Người Thái Bình

Tết (pronounced "Tate") is Vietnam’s most important festival. Vietnam’s Tết is equivalent to a combination of the Western Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year all together. It is the occasion that unites the Vietnamese people who annually devote their creative energy and resources preparing for it.

The word "tết" is a distortion of tiết meaning festival. The full name, Tết Nguyên Đán, or Festival of the First Morning of the Year, refers to the beginning of the lunar year which falls between the winter solstice and spring equinox. The lunar calendar is divided into twelve months of either 29 or 30 days, but every five years, in order to match up every mid-month with a full moon, there are two leap years that have thirteen months. Due to this discrepancy between the two calendars, Tết does not fall on the same day every year in the solar calendar.

Tết is the only time of the year when the usually discreet Vietnamese society truly opens its heart, mind, and cooking skills for all to see. Embodied in both its ceremony and essence is the whole spectrum of Vietnamese mythology, and the entire notion of one’s place within the family, with one’s ancestors, and with the universe in general. It is a fascinating mixture of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, the three currents of religion that have blended with the original Vietnamese animistic beliefs and ancestor worship.

Under imperial Vietnam, Tết was observed by everyone – emperors and commoners alike. During the Lý Dynasty of the 11th to 13th centuries, the emperor would watch the annual boat race up the Red River as his imperial galleon glided southward to Hanoi. He would end the day by offering Buddhist rites at the seven-storied tower of the Doãn Môn (Gate of Grandeur), followed by dinner with his court, counselors and the famous poets and scholars of the land.

The form changed somewhat during the Trần Dynasty (13th to 15th centuries), when the dawn of the new year would find the emperor at the Dinh Thọ Danh (Palace of Fame and Longevity) receiving greetings from the crown prince and mandarins.

On the eve of the new year, the emperor paid respects to his ancestors at the Trường Xuân Cung (Palace of Eternal Spring). These same rituals were observed by all Vietnamese monarchs until 1945, when the last emperor, Bảo Đại of the Nguyễn Dynasty (1802-1945) was abdicated in favor of the presidency.

Tết rites begin a week before the lunar New Year’s Day, but preparations actually start weeks before that. On the 23rd day of the 12th month, a ceremony is held in homes in honors of the Táo Quân (god of the kitchen), with fresh fruit, coked food, paper models of a stork, a horse, a car, a pair of mandarins boots, and a ceremonial dress (but no pants) offered to the Táo Quân. The Vietnamese, with their inborn sense of humor and ridicule of the powerful, believe – or at least claim to – that Táo Quân burnt their pants by staying too close to the kitchen. With or without pants, this is the time for the gods to return to the Kingdom of Heaven to present their annual report of the state of earthly matters and the individual family to the Ngọc Hoàng (Emperor of Jade), before returning once again to earth on New Year’s Eve.

The legend behind Táo Quân originates from the tragic story of a woodcutter and his wife. They lived modestly but happily together, but lost their happiness as time went by, and the marriage remained childless. The husband became unhappy; he began drinking too much and mistreated his wife. Unable to stand it any longer, the wife deserted him and married a hunter in the neighboring village.

Lonely and repentant, the woodcutter one day decided to pay the wife a visit and apologize, but soon after his arrival in the neighboring village, the hunter returned. To avoid any misunderstanding, the woman hid her former husband in a small thatched barn near the kitchen. The hunter was smoking his game in the kitchen when a spark from the fire set the small barn ablaze. The distraught woman raced to the barn to save her former husband; the hunter followed suite in an attempt to save his wife, and the three perished in the fire.

Deeply touched by such devotion, the Jade Emperor in Heaven made them gods. The former assigned them the duty of watching over the welfare of people on earth from the vantage point of the kitchen, where, to this day, they are revered as the gods of the home’s kitchen.

When Táo Quân takes his annual week-long journey to Heaven, the Vietnamese believe their home have bean left without protection and so look for ways to guard themselves against an invasion of bad spirits. They erect a cây nêu – meaning signal tree – which is usually a very high bamboo pole with a khánh, a sonorous clay tablet with piece of yellow cloth attached to the top, in front of the home. The origins of this custom are revealed in a story that goes back to the birth of the Vietnamese nation, when the Vietnamese were constantly threatened by malevolent spirits. Lord Buddha took compassion on them and one day descended from Nirvana to visit them. He was immediately surrounded by all kinds of devils, with whom he struck up a deal for a small piece of land to be in exchange for precious stones, gold and silver, which he laid before them. When the devils asked him the size of the piece of land he had in mind, Buddha told them it would be as large as his gown. The devils agreed to this, thinking they had struck a very good deal; but when Lord Buddha dropped his gown it spread as far as the territory of Vietnam. The devils were furious, but the deal had been made. Lord Buddha then advised the Vietnamese: "At the end of the year, when you invite your ancestors to your home for Tết, the devils may mingle with them. You must erect a high bamboo pole flying my emblem on a piece of cloth in front of your house to prevent the devils from coming to disturb you while you are enjoying Tết and your reunion with your ancestors." The custom of erecting a cây nêu in front of the house during Tết is still observed in parts of the countryside, but has somewhat vanished from Vietnam’s urban areas.

With the malevolent spirits frightened way by the cây nêu, the Vietnamese set their minds to things of the material sort and prepare bánh chưng, Tết’s traditional glutinous rice cakes stuffed with port, fat, and green beans. The cakes are usually served with pickle onions and vegetables.

Another indispensable feature, even for the poorer families, is a branch of peach tree blossom – the cành đào. During Tết, these branches can cost more than a day’s average wages. In southern and central Vietnam, the peach blossom is replaced by cành mai, a branch of yellow apricot blossoms.

For maximum security against any possible intrusion by demons, and bad spirits, the Vietnamese traditionally lit fire crackers to thwart the notorious devils Nã A and his terrible wife, who cannot bear noise and light. For the same reason, dragon dances (múa lân) are held at public gathering with colorful traditional costumes and drum beats.

After all these precautions have been taken, the Vietnamese calmly await the arrival of spring. The first day of Tết is always reserved for the worship of ancestors, who are ceremoniously welcomed back from heaven on New Year’s Eve during the Giao Thừa – the transition between the old and new year. Elaborately-prepared food offerings, together with the perfume of burning sandalwood, incense, and thủy tiên – a type of fragrant white narcissus than blooms during Tết, await the ancestors at the altar. At midnight on the last day of the old year, all human problems, earthly worries, war, revolution, political intrigue, and commercial transactions are left behind. A temporary general truce is declared between human beings and spirits. All acts performed, all events – whether favorable or unfavorable – that take place on the first day of Tết, are believed to effect the year ahead or even the course of one’s remaining life.

The first sound heard in the new year (excluding the firecrackers) is most important. The lowing of a buffalo heralds a year of sweat and toil, and a dog barking signifies a year of confidence and trust; a cock crow signals hard work and bad harvest. Worst of all is the cry of an owl, a warning of coming epidemic and calamity, a woe for the entire community.

The first visitor to the home on the first day of the new year has to be a man of virtue who would bring good luck to the family. This important tradition is known in Vietnamese as xông nhà. A chosen person can be arranged before Tết in a discreet manner.

Traditionally, the head of the home would make a short excursion – called xuất hành - in the geographical direction which was determined beforehand for that year to bring good luck to the whole family. This person would normally during this trip pick a well chosen branch of leave which represents youth, liveliness and good luck to display in the living room; this is called hái lộc. During the first few days of the new year, the Vietnamese avoid putting any trash seen on the floor away, believing that the trash symbolizes the wealth that they are to get for the rest of the year.

Writers or poets would refresh their inspiration by writing or composing a new work on the first day of new year. This is known as khai bút. Also noticeable are câu đối, parallel sentences written in traditional black Chinese characters on red paper in Vietnamese nôm characters, or Romanized Vietnamese letters arranged to lo ok like Chinese calligraphy. These are hung in the center of the home.

In many families, gifts of money wrapped in red envelops are exchanged (this is called lì xì ) with best wishes for the new year. Typically, in return for the children’s wish that their parent would have good health and longevity, the latter would wish that the former will be doing well in their education.

Pagodas are popular places during Tết where many, including teenagers, come to pray in front of Buddha, and to draw the annual horoscope.