Each time the Tet holiday is drawing near, people start being in a rush to prepare lots of things for welcoming a new year, which makes up the most vibrant and emerging atmosphere any international tourist will find difficult to visualize if having not ever experienced before. It is extremely necessary to understand traditional customs and values of the festival while you join it for your Vietnam tour packages. To do that, let’s explore DOs and DON’Ts during Tet holiday in Vietnam here!
DOs and DON’Ts during Tet holiday in Vietnam
Dos during Tet holiday in Vietnam
Giving good luck wishes to each other
In the Tet holiday, Vietnamese people always hope all of the best things will come to them through a coming year, so giving good luck wishes to each other is what they will do at the beginning of the year. They will wish their family members, relations, friends, teachers, and colleagues a happy new year, the extremely good health, and high earnings. Especially, there is a special wish to the elderly, which hopes they live as long as possible to happily stay by their descendants; it is “live long until 100 years old (Sống lâu trăm tuổi). Hence, it is definitely among the DOs during Tet holiday in Vietnam.
Giving lucky money
Commonly, who are given lucky money in the Tet holiday include children and the elderly. The lucky money is often put inside red envelopes which people call “bao lixi”, and when you come to visit a Vietnamese family, you should prepare some to give the elderly or children. Be mindful that while giving lucky money, you should also say good luck wishes to them.
Setting up lucky fruits in an eye-catching way
Lucky fruits will be placed on the altar for ancestral worship one day before the Tet holiday, so it is indeed an extremely important part. Combining the names of those kinds of fruit gives us a certain meaning in Vietnamese, such as coconut (dua), custard apple (cau), papaya (du), mango (xai); it is “cau dua du xai”, meaning Vietnamese people wish for a well-fed life.
Settling all debts before the Tet holiday
It is believed that no Vietnamese person wants to get stuck in debts in the coming year, so one of the Dos during Tet holiday in Vietnam is paying all debts and borrowed items before New Year’s Eve. This custom implies that there is no debt occurring to people through the new year.
Don’ts during Tet holiday in Vietnam
Sweeping houses
Vietnamese people think that using brooms to clean houses is considered as the act of sweeping out all their money and success. That is the reason why sweeping houses during the first three days of the new year is a taboo in the culture of Vietnamese. If it is a need for cleaning the houses, making use of a vacuum cleaner is utterly ideal.
Using unlucky words
It is believed that unlucky things will haunt Vietnamese people when they use bad words, e.g. bad, sad, die, or ugly on the first days of the new year. Therefore, it is better to avoid say those words during the Tet holiday, and it is also among the don’ts during Tet holiday in Vietnam.
Breaking glassware
Of course, nobody wishes a terrible year with broken relationships, career, and study, so another thing which you shouldn’t do in the Tet holiday in Vietnam is breaking glassware. Absolutely, be careful with preparing Tet meals or doing anything.
Wearing black or/and white clothes
It is easy to understand why Vietnamese people avoid wearing black or/and white clothing items during the Tet holiday in Vietnam. It is because those items are often worn at funerals. It is not good at all as you want people to think that you are waiting for a funeral in the coming year.
