Not long after our Christmas and New Year’s celebrations Tet arrived, Vietnam’s most longed-for and biggest annual holiday. The Lunar New Year, Tet 2012 welcomed the year of the Dragon on the 23rd of January, a very special year, as the dragon is the only mythical creature on the lunar calendar, which has the potential to breathe life-changing fire, to be magical, even mythical.

Cherry blossom as Tet tree

The whole month of January people were busy preparing for this nine-day celebration; spring cleaning their homes, buying new clothes, cooking traditional food and settling any disputes before the celebrations began. The week before the 23rd of January was especially busy; streets were filled with people buying food and gifts in preparation of Tet. And then all of a sudden half of the city left to visit relatives in the countryside, and shops, markets, restaurants and businesses shut their doors and silence entered Hanoi… for at least for a couple of days.

Tet is all about good luck and new beginnings. Many ceremonies and traditions give color to Tet-celebrations, which are quiet impressive. In Vietnamese culture the ancestors are as important as, if not more important than, the living members of the family. Because their presence and blessings are considered critical to the well-being, the ancestors are involved in the everyday life, remembering them through daily offerings of food and prayers, and inviting them to join for important holidays, such as Tet.

What I will remember from Tet…

The Kitchen God

This is one of the nicest ceremonies. Vietnamese believe that the Kitchen God, Tao Quan lives in each house and will travel back to heaven once a year, exact a week before Lunar New Year to report on each family’s life and experiences throughout the year. It is said that Tao Quan travels to heaven on a magical fish. To facilitate this journey to heaven and back, families burned paper fish and money and people released gold fish or carp into the lakes and the Red River.

Banh Chung

Banh Chung

This traditional Vietnamese rice cake is a green, square-shaped sticky rice covered pie with a bean and pork centre, wrapped in green leaves. Its shape is considered a symbol of the thankfulness of the Vietnamese people for the great abundance of the Earth, which has supplied them with nutritious food throughout the four seasons of the year. The cake embodies harmony with nature and respect for the ancestors.

Lucky money

Lucky money

Tet is not only the beginning of the New Year, it is also everyone’s birthday. During Tet adults congratulate their children, young relatives or colleagues on becoming one year older by giving them a small red envelope with lucky money. This custom is a way of praising the children and wishing them the best. I am lucky to be one of the youngest at the office… but still not sure whether I am supposed to spend or keep it.

New Year’s eve

New Year’s eve, January 22nd is when the magic happened. Traditional Tet food was prepared for the most sacred moment of the holiday when ancestors enter the house to join the celebrations.At midnight, under the eyes of at least one million people, amazing fireworks lightened up the sky around Hoan Kiem and other lakes in Hanoi, after which people of all ages went to the pagoda to pray for a successful year.

Incense gave the streets this mysterious touch where house altars were placed on the sidewalks in front of shops and houses holding a whole chicken, a plate of salt and a portion of rice. Right after midnight the families assigned one person to be the first to enter the house on the New Year. If this person – most often a man – was successful and fortunate during the past year and has favorable astrologic signs, this passage is believed to bring good luck to the home. The first three days of the New Year are dedicated to spending time with family and friends in an intimate setting, eating traditional food and drinking rice wine.

Tet officially ended on the 26th of January, but it will take longer to have everything return to normal. Today, the fifth day of the New Year the city is still quiet… but slowly awakening. People are returning home, and bit by bit shops are opening. In a couple of days I’ll find myself back in bustling and chaotic Hanoi, longing for Tet again.

Enjoying the fireworks

New Year's eve

Hoan Kiem