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Tuantute, excellent post. Where did you copy it from? It has a lot of great information for some of the members that are here for the first time. Thanks

I'm not coppy..... nearly the Tet Holiday and I write some info about Tet Holiday for people know.

Budman, I agree. Good and useful post.

Some quick additions popping out of my mind.

1. All dates mentioned are of lunar calendar.

2. The house cleaning by the 23 Dec has connection with the "Ong Tao" ceremony. Another tidbit: Ong Tao is rumored not wearing any pants. Seriously!!

3. The Vietnamese also believes that the house should not be cleaned during the first 3 days because one would chase the good luck away.

4. Another tradition is to "hai loc" and "xong nha". They are normally done together.

"Hai loc" On the new year's Eve, they will go to the temple and get some blossoms and buds to bring home in hope to bring new good life to the house.
"Xong nha": the first man to enter a home after mid night is important since it is believed that the good (or bad) luck of that person will influence the fate of the household for the entire year, therefore the family will normally go "hai loc" before mid night then reenter the house to do the "xong nha".

5. "Banh chung": Traditionally, it goes with "banh day" the circle cake, but people don't eat the circle cake much any more. Here is an introduction about the legend about the cakes.



In the South, people use the "banh tet" the long cake in combination of the "banh chung"

6. A tradition no longer allowed to practice is using the firecrackers to chase away the devils.

There are so many traditions in connection with the New Year, so it is hard to mention all of them.

for celibrate this; you guys should in country side of north or mid vietnam... that is interesting


i'll be in Thai Nguyen this time with ethnic minority . to discover things and let you guys know later on...
ca anh em chi
Chuc Mung Nam Moi 2013 ..... !

Great post, Tuan.  Very informative! 

Yeah, Budman, you better start cleaning your Ong Tao.

And Anatta, you better get me my Li Xi, man???

In reference to what Wild_1 is talking about, here's a link to another important part of New Years customs here in Vietnam:

The Kitchen God will be very angry with Budman since he insisted on having an foreign electrical robot/stove instead of a traditional kitchen, so I would not hold my hope high.

Howie
You should know better than anyone that before you get your Li Xi, you have to perform your kowtow. Better start practicing it now, boy.

I want a red envelope too Anatta.

To continue on with the post, here's a list of things NOT to do during the Lunar New Year:

Budman
Ok, you'll get your red envelop with the standard brand-new 1 dollar .

Concerning the latest list, I have real doubt about the popularity for some of them:

Rule number 3: DonÂ’t swear, curse or argue.


Well, I'd say this applies year round, at least, in educated households .

Rule number 4: For those who enjoy giving presents, make sure you avoid the followings: clock or watch (the recipient's time is going to pass), cats (mèo in Vietnamese language pronounced like nghèo, poverty – even though this year is the year of the cat), medicine (the receiver will get ill), writing ink (ink is black, an unlucky color), scissors or knives (they bring incompatibility).

I certainly don't recognize this list, except from the scissors and knives thing which you should not do under any occasion, since it means that you want either to sever the relationship or bring physical harm, so I would guess that this is a regional practice, not one for the entire country.

Rule number 7: If you have been proud of your ability to devour any kind of food, stop yourself from eating squids (its ink is black, not the favorite color, remember?), duck meat (duck is stupid), or shrimps (you will move backwards like them!).

This is a regional thing, practiced more in the rural areas than a national practice, certainly not in the big cities.

Rule number 9: the fifth day of the New Year is considered to be anniversary of the death, not good for departures. A good excuse for not having to start work that early, and if your boss is a western, he needs education!

The 5, 16 and 23 lunar days are generally considered bad luck days year round, not only for the New Year. This is an old practice.

In general, practice varies widely. There are particular practices for each region, which other regions don't follow. In the South, there is a practice of displaying soursop, coconut, papaya and mango because the pronunciation of those fruits together Cầu Dừa Đủ Xoài sounds like cầu vừa đủ xài" (pray for enough money to use), in Southern dialect. Sufficient to say, the Northerners laugh at this practice since it does not make sense to them.

The young generation don't follow those superstitions as much.