• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Uncover Vietnam Travel Guide | Vacations, Travel and Tourism

Header Right

  • Start Here
  • Blog
  • Activities
  • Cities
  • Lodging
  • Transportation
  • Search
  • Start Here
  • Blog
  • Activities
  • Cities
  • Lodging
  • Transportation
  • Search

Header Right

Tet Festival

Tet Festival: Vietnamese Lunar New Year

ShareTweet

Celebrated during late January and early February, the Tet Festival marks the start of spring and the end of winter in the Lunar calendar. It’s known as the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, and coincides with the Chinese New Year.

Tet is an abbreviated form of Tết Nguyên Đán which, when translated from Vietnamese, means ‘The Feast of the First Morning of the First Day’. This three-day celebration actually lasts up to an entire week due to the slew of festivities and extended preparations locals do to welcome the beginning of a new cycle of the universe while saying goodbye to the old.

Local Traditions during Tet Holiday

Tet Festival
Tet Festival. Photo: Khánh Hmoong

Besides the customary drinking, eating, and merry socializing, the weeks that lead to the Festival finds locals cleaning and at times repainting their homes. The intent of these flurry of cleansing activities is to rid homes of the previous year’s bad luck. Good fortune is welcomed in by flowering peach trees which symbolize positive promises for the coming spring.

Ancestral altars are also presented with five different kinds of local fruits as well as votive papers. Beautiful flowers such as marigold, chrysanthemums, lavenders, paper white flowers, Mao Ga flowers, and kumquat trees also adorn houses.

Apricot flowers in Hang Luoc Flower Market, Tet
Apricot flowers in Hang Luoc Flower Market, Tet. Photo: Hanoi Mark

Good deeds are also done. Disputes are forgiven. One treats another generously. Debts are settled. Some people get haircuts. Kids promise to behave well and thus they receive small red envelopes filled with coins. People wear new clothes. Kitchens are filled with tons of food to symbolize the coming of good things.

Food eaten during Tet

Steamed square cake ( Bánh Chưng)
Steamed square cake ( Bánh Chưng). Photo: Ben Nguyen

The festival is the best time to enjoy Vietnam’s culinary treats and delicacies. Locals serve banh chung or steamed square cake. Vietnamese ham or sausage or gio cha are also devoured. Xoi or sticky rice are aplenty, so is steamed chicken or thit ga. Visitors are heartily served with dried fruits and seeds called mut. These fruits and seeds are delicately served inside ornate boxes and placed in the living room table.

Vietnamese New Year Dress

Tet Festival
Tet Festival. Photo: Austin AdventuresFollow

Red and yellow are the usual colors locals wear proudly and brightly. These colors are seen to represent good fortune and prosperity. The traditional lion dance or mua lan, with its similarly bright red and gold hues, graces Vietnam’s busy streets. These colourful performances are accompanied by drums, gongs, bells, and noisy firecrackers all of which are believed to drive off evil spirits.

Tet Festival Culture

Dancing Lions
Dancing Lions. Photo: Dennis JarvisFollow

Locals believe the Test Festival is the most sacred festival in Vietnam. Its importance has been hailed as equal to customary celebrations enjoyed in other parts of the world such as Thanksgiving, Easter, and Christmas. Vietnam’s unique practices, arts and crafts, amusements, and one-of-a-kind food are showcased in this annual event.

Locals also make it a time to visit friends, family, and thus pay respects to their ancestors by giving them offerings. Going to shrines and pagodas are also practiced. It is one way for the Vietnamese to pay holy homage to their gods.

Tips for visiting Vietnam during Tet

Do book in advance prior to the Tet Festival. Expect flights to be filled weeks before this grand event. This is one of the most highly celebrated festival in Vietnam thus numerous shops, offices, attractions, and restaurants are closed for the entire three days of the fest. Plan your itinerary carefully and take all these information into thoughtful consideration.

ShareTweet
Previous Post: «Ho Chi Minh City in January Visiting Ho Chi Minh City in January
Next Post: Buddha’s Birthday – Vietnam Buddha's Birthday»

Primary Sidebar

Events in Vietnam

  • All Events
  • Buddha’s Birthday – Vietnam
  • Buon Don Elephant Races
  • Hoi An Lantern Festival
  • Hue Festival – Vietnam
  • Hung Kings’ Temple Festival – Phu Tho Province
  • Lim Festival – Vietnam
  • Mid-Autumn Festival – Vietnam
  • Perfume Festival
  • Phu Giay Festival – Nam Dinh Province
  • Tet Festival: Vietnamese Lunar New Year
  • Wandering Souls Day (Vu Lan) – Vietnam

Discover Vietnam for less

Enter your email below and grab our complimentary guide on how to get luxury travel for less in Vietnam.

Footer

Uncover Vietnam

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Start Here
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
Facebook Instagram Pinterest Twitter

Travel Guide

  • Travel Blog
  • Vietnam Activities
  • Vietnam Towns
  • Vietnam Transportation
  • Vietnam Hotels
  • Vietnamese Culture
  • Vietnam FAQ

Disclosure: Uncover Vietnam is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Copyright © 2023 · Uncover Vietnam - Vacations, Travel & Tourism | Sitemap