Recommendations for expats staying in Vietnam for Tet

The Lunar New Year, which Vietnamese people call ‘Tet,’ falls on February 8 this year.

Deluxe Tours Group in collaboration with Vietnam Is Awesome will have one-day tours to the southern province of Vinh Long from February 8 to 15 (the first through eighth days of the lunar calendar’s first month).

On the tour titled “Cai Be – Vinh Long 1 Day,” tourists will boat on the Cai Be River, visit local house boats, and enjoy tea and traditional Vietnamese jams while chatting with local people about the Tet holiday.

Participants will also have the opportunity to visit the local bakeries that produce ‘com’ (pop rice – a favored junk food in southern Vietnam) and ‘banh trang’ (rice paper). During the visit, they will not only see how the dishes are made, but also sample the final product. 

An experienced guide will then take visitors across the Mekong River to witness local fishing and hear stories of daily life in the region.

Visitors will join a local family to experience traditional Tet holiday customs like offering lucky money to children and walking along the village to watch the Lunar New Year celebration.

At the end of the trip, participants will visit Tien Chau Pagoda in Vinh Long to experience ‘hai loc’ (collecting young buds to wish for luck in the new year).

Amitysmiletravel, another tour operator, will also continue to offer its traditional Tet tours. As usual, the company gives many options to tourists who want to experience the holiday the way the Vietnamese do.

According to the organizer, the half-day “Tet with Saigonese” tour will bring tourists a chance to indulge themselves in the festive atmosphere of Ho Chi Minh City during Tet while visiting the flower fair it Tao Dan Cultural Park.

They will join with local people to pray for good luck and happiness at Xa Loi Pagoda (or Giac Lam Pagoda, Lang Ong Temple) and Thien Hau Temple, then take a cyclo ride around an area laden with Chinese and witness different traditions such as unicorn dance, traditional games, and more.

Participants will then come to local homes to continue Tet festivities by being greeted with the happy wish “Chuc Mung Nam Moi”(Happy New Year), offered traditional dishes, and invited to join games with the family members. 

The tour will run from February 8 to 11 (the first to fourth days of the Lunar New Year).

Meanwhile, the full-day tour “Tet in the Mekong Delta” will give visitors a full-day excursion to My Tho, a peaceful town on the bank of the Mekong River, 75km south of Ho Chi Minh City, to explore Thoi Son Islet, Vinh Trang Pagoda and experience the daily life of the locals.

The tour features a stroll through the season’s flower fair, a cruise on the Mekong River, a visit to the watermelon market, a stop at a local home living on floriculture, a traditional lunch with the locals, and a cooking practice session of ‘banh tet’ (a kind of country cake made of sticky rice and green peas).

Tourists are required not to wear shorts or sleeveless shirts in pagodas or local homes during the tours.

For those who enjoy trying local eats, the “Traditional Meal” tour of Saigon Hotpot should be considered.

Tour goers will have the chance to learn how to cook and enjoy Vietnamese traditional meals hosted in locals’ houses, as well as get to know Vietnamese food and family culture after being taken to a local market.

A “Traditional Meal” tour is offered for a group of more than 10, and can be rearranged according to tourists’ plans.

During the Tet holiday, the tour can offer more Vietnamese Tet holiday’s traditional foods at tour goers’ request.

To many Vietnamese people, Tet is a time to enjoy delicious foods, so why should expats not enjoy the traditional food for themselves?

The Time Bistro Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1 is planning to offer a free buffet to about 20 expats and foreigners who want to experience special Vietnamese food for Tet. 

According to the event’s organizers, the menu will include dishes like spicy mayo prawns, pomelo salad, fresh clam soup with dill, ginger poached chicken with rice and sweet melon soup.

Special Tet dishes will include ‘banh tet,’ ‘dua muoi’ (pickled vegetables), ‘cu kieu’ (pickled leek) and ‘tom kho’ (dried shrimp).

The event is scheduled to take place at the restaurant at 44 Nguyen Hue Street at 11:00 am on February 5.

Advanced registration to get the restaurant’s confirmation on attendance is required.

Traditions of Tet, the Vietnamese New Year

An introduction to Tet, the Vietnamese New Year - Tet foods, flowers, fruits, celebrations and gatherings.

Vietnamese New Year is the most important Festival of the Vietnamese people. When Spring arrives, all Vietnamese are thrilled by the advent of Tet. Wherever they may be, they feel an immense nostalgia, wishing to come back to their homeland for a family reunion and a taste of the particular flavors of the Vietnamese festivities.

This scared Festival occurs sometime between late January or early February, depending on Lunar Calendar. Although officially a three-day affair, festivities may continue for a week or more with every effort made to indulge in eating, drinking, and enjoyable social activities. It is also a time for family reunions, and for paying respect to ancestors and the elders. Gifts of food are made to friends, neighbors and relatives in the days before Tet.

Vietnamese calligrapher creates traditional signs.Above all, the Tet of the New Year is a time for meeting. It is an opportunity for the household genies to meet, those who have helped during the year, namely the Craft Creator, the Land Genie and the Kitchen God. Tet is also an opportunity to invite and welcome deceased ancestors back for a family reunion with their descendants to join the family's Tet celebrations. Finally, Tet is a good opportunity for family members to meet. This custom has become sacred and secular and, therefore, no matter where they are or whatever the circumstances, family members find ways to come back to meet their loved ones, gather for a dinner of traditional foods like bánh chưng (a square cake made of sticky rice stuffed with beans and pork), mang (a soup of boiled bamboo shoots and flied pork) and xôi  (orange sticky rice). This is followed by a visit to the local pagodas.

Everyone is in a rush to get a haircut, buy new clothes, spruce up their homes, visit friends, settle outstanding debts, and stock up on traditional Tet delicacies. Businesses hang festive red banners which read "Chuc Mung Nam Moi" (Happy New Year) and city streets are festooned with colored lights. Stalls spring up all over town to sell mut (candied fruits and jams), traditional cakes, and fresh fruit and flowers. Certain markets sell nothing but cone-shaped kumquat bushes. Others sell flowering peach trees, symbols of life and good fortune which people bring into their homes to celebrate the coming of spring. As vendors pour into the City with peach trees strapped to their bicycles, the streets look like moving pink forests.

Fruits of Tet: "Mam Ngu Qua"

The "five-fruit tray" on the ancestral altar during the Tet Holidays symbolizes the admiration and gratitude of the Vietnamese to Heaven and Earth and their ancestors and demonstrates their aspiration for a life of plenty. The five fruits represent the quintessence hope that Heaven and Earth bless humans. It demonstrates a Vietnamese percept of life, "When taking fruit, you should think of the grower".

Flowers of Tet: Dao, Mai, Quat (the Peach, Apricot and Kumquat)

Spring flowers in bloom for Tet, Vietnamese New Year.Coming to Vietnam during the season of the Tet festival, the visitor is engulfed in an ocean of colorful flowers. Visiting flower shows, contemplating the buds and blooms, and purchasing blossoms represents one of the distinct Vietnamese cultural characteristics. The peach (in the North ) and the apricot blossoms (in the South) are symbols of the Vietnamese Tet. The warm pink of the peach could very well match the dry cold of the North, but the hot South seems to be flourishing in the riot of the yellow of the apricot. The mandarin is symbolic of good fortune; therefore people tend to choose the little plants with verdant leaves which are laden with large, orange fruit for a longer display.

Food Specialties for TET

On the last day of the old year, the preparation of food to offer to the ancestors is of special significance. Dishes to offer to the ancestors differ in the Northern, Central and Southern parts of the country, depending on their respective weather conditions at the time and on different local agricultural products available. What is common in all regions of the country during Tet holidays are the varieties of soups, fried, boiled, or stewed dishes, meat, fish, vegetable... The foods that the Vietnamese eat at Tet are varied and diverse, but the people throughout the country all want to have the best and the most beautiful looking food on this occasion to offer their ancestors and to treat their friends and guests.

The Giao Thua (New Year's Eve )

The Giao Thua is the most sacred point of time, the passage from the old to the new year. It is popularly believed that in Heaven there are twelve Highnesses in charge of monitoring and controlling the affairs on earth, each of them taking charge of one year. The giao thua is the moment of seeing off the old chieftain upon the conclusion of his term and welcoming in the new one upon his assumption of office. For this reason, every home makes offerings in the open air to pray for a good new year.

After the giao thua is the start of the New Year with many customs and practices, amusements and entertainment, all of a distinct Vietnamese folk culture. This is a holiday with a distinct traditional culture that is rich in national identity.