The festival which best epitomizes Vietnam's cultural identity is the Lunar New Year with a lot of meaningful customs and traditional special foods. Below are some traditions that people keep doing in each Lunar New Year.
Farewell ceremony for the Kitchen Gods
People do this ritual on the 23rd of the last lunar month. Each Vietnamese family offers a farewell ceremony for Ong Tao to go up to Heaven Palace. His task is to make an annual report to the Jade Emperor on the family's affairs throughout the year.
Cleaning and decorating the home
Homes are often cleaned and decorated before New Year's Eve. It is a common belief that cleaning the house will get rid of the bad fortunes associated with the old year.
Traditional special foods - Banh chung
One of the most traditional special foods for Tet is Banh Chung or sticky rice cake. Banh Chung is made of sticky rice, pork and green bean wrapper inside a special leaf called Dong and boiled for about 12 hours.
Going to flower market
Tet is not Tet if there is no sight of Hoa Mai (south) or Hoa Dao (north) in every home. The mandarin is symbolic of good fortune. Flower buds and blossoms are the symbols for new beginning. Hoa mai are the yellow apricot flowers often seen in the southern Arranging five-fruit tray The tray symbolizes the wholeheartedness and gratitude of the present generation towards their ancestors and the Genie of the Land during Tet festival./.
