The book gathers articles by Vietnamese and French scholars once published on the Journal of the Indochina (Photo: VietnamPlus). Hanoi (VNA) - Featuring enticing articles, a book entitled "Tet Viet Nam xua” (Vietnamese Lunar New Year Festival in the Past) has brought readers into a journey of the festival, called Tet in Vietnamese, through many rituals, customs, and hobbies imbued with the “Vietnamese soul”.
The book, a new publication of MaiHaBooks and The Gioi Publishers, gathers articles by Vietnamese and French scholars once published on the Journal of the Indochina – the first Vietnamese-language magazine published in Hanoi from 1913 to 1919.
For researchers of the pre-modern Vietnamese culture, the journal was well-known, as it was associated with many renowned Vietnamese and French writers. This was a valuable source for the study of Vietnamese history and culture.
Tet in the past – lively, sophisticated, but also very… strange
Illustrated by 50 Tet paintings, the book of nearly 200 pages consists of three main parts on Tet rituals, customs, and hobbies.
The ritual part includes articles on ancestor worshipping; the three deities of Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity; a festival to welcome the spring in Hue; the rite of Nam Giao; the Annam calendar; and Tet-associated psychology.
In the second part, Tet customs are described vividly with a New Year's Eve letter; Tet in the countryside through the perspective of French writer Jean Marquet; and Tet through the eyes of historian Georges Pisier and of an Annam person as well as via the stories of European tourists and missionaries (17th and 18th centuries).
The third part revolves around elegant Vietnamese hobbies during Tet such as those related to daffodils; the origin and meaning of folk paintings; and the Lim festival.
In the first part of the book, cultural expert Pham Quynh has an interesting article about the psychology of people on Tet, which explained the magical and sacred meaning of the event. According to him, Tet is the great excitement of the Annam people.
Dr. Nguyen Manh Hung, Director of the Institute for Vietnamese Studies (Photo: VietnamPlus) Perhaps the most interesting part is about Tet customs, which are full of articles written in the perspectives of French and international writers, tourists, and scholars. These perspectives are fresh, strange, even wrong sometimes.
For example, based on his long-time working and living experience in Indochina, French writer Jean Marquet wrote an interesting article on Tet in the countryside, which featured big parties, drinking, games of cards, cockfights, and affectionate greetings.
Book on Tet is never old or boring
Talking about the book, Tran Doan Lam, Director of the The Gioi Publishers, said its volume is not too large, making it be suitable for general readers. Although being brief, the articles contain a significant amount of contents.
The book mostly showcases Tet customs in the northern Delta region and Hue, he noted.
Tran Doan Lam, Director of the The Gioi Publishers (Photo: VietnamPlus) Associate Professor and Doctor Nguyen Manh Hung, Director of the Institute for Vietnamese Studies, is a collector of the Journal of the Indochina. The scholar said the book is worth reading. Readers can have a chance to experience how the West admired Vietnam’s traditional Tet and how they saw our special things during the festival, he added.
Experts said although many publications are launched to celebrate the coming of the Spring, Tet – the biggest festival in a year of Vietnamese people – is never a boring topic for literature. They said "Tet Viet Nam xua” is the first book that gathers personal perspectives on Vietnamese Tet of foreign scholars./.
