Vietnam Trip - Stumble Upon Tet Holiday

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Sometimes it is so much more rewarding to stay awhile and soak in, when the exposure to the culture values are pushed to the max – and in our case, it is the biggest, and the ultimate national holidays of the country – Lunar New Year or Tet Holiday.

What we understand about Tet Holiday in Vietnam

In short, this very important occasion can be summed up as the occasion of New Year Holiday, officially celebrated during 3 first days of the lunar year, but commonly extends for a week of the first month. Many come to Vietnam during Tet having no ideas that it is a very private of affair, which revolved around family and home. Nor that this devotion has slowly burning the air for at least several weeks, to the point of sizzling during the last minutes and reveals Vietnamese culture in its peak of saturation.

Starting from several weeks leading up to Tet, the traffics will get more frenzy than usual and people would be moving around more impatiently. Road sides are adorned with red envelopes, red bags, red boxes and whatever red decorated with the zodiac sign of the year in golden shades. Year-end sales are everywhere, but people instead will start to rush for boxes of Danisa cookies and fruit candies such as sweet potato in chunks, sticks of squash, tamarind pods, dry sliced coconut or ginger, sticky strawberry, lotus seeds, and dried persimmons or tangerine…

As Tet is closely approaching, on the bustling flow of traffics, one could easily catch the sign of kumquat tree or cherry blossom tied precariously on the back of motorbike, fast on their track to their new home. This time, many families have started to clean their house, repair anything need to be repaired and then decorating with one of the above plant. Corners of blooms, trees, flowers spring up as well as flags, lights & lanterns hung all over the streets and alleys to welcome the spirit of New Year in the most wholesome way possible.

Tet is around the corner when there is only one or two day till the new year. Families get together and prepare the most traditional foods of Vietnam: Banh chung (square rice cake). On the New Year’s Eve, youngster leave home to watch the fireworks exploding over the city at midnight. In early of the next morning, any traffic magically disappeared. Shops or restaurants close down, the city become vacant, travel is anything but convenient. Yet on the other side of every closed doors is a private party taking hold, where copious amounts of beer and whiskey are drank and feast of epic proportions are consumed.

How we enjoy Tet holiday

Since we don’t mind the crowd, we embrace the thick of it: walking and watching the bustling street-life before Tet, visit colorful flower markets or cheerful New Year market where locals shopping and buying hordes of stuffs, get on a rooftop and watch the firework on New Year’s Eve, visit Ngoc Son temple, Quan Su pagoda to see locals praying, visit Temple of Literature to see locals having Chinese characters written or join the crowds at the Hanoi Opera House, where companies like Heineken put on events… Our favorite probably the city tour since the street is so vacant and beautiful!

That is for those who love tranquility and don’t mind some quiet time during travelling, choose a really nice hotel, bring books, stock up on snack, rent a bicycle if possible and take in little details of the street and enjoy the devoid of usual traffic madness.

And we strongly recommend…

Apply for a visa in advance, as soon as possible since they all close during the holiday!

Book in advance for accommodation & transportation

Check availability for Restaurants and Sight-seeing places

Price on New Year Holiday will be a little inflated, so we recommended to check for cheap prices before booking any tours in Vietnam: http://www.bestpricevn.com/ or shopping around with other travel agencies.

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Photos

Cherry Blossom - so pretty!
This image is credited from independent.co.uk

Chinese Character
Chinese Character

Comments

[Liennguyen]

Welcome to Vietnam
Hi! look like u know more about my country new year (Tet holiday). Hope u can enjoy a real Tet in my country. I really like this posted.