Culture
Every year, on the 23rd day of December in Lunar New Year, they would travel up to the Heavens to give the annual report as well as pray for next year’ s prosperity. They would come back to Earth on the New Year’ s Eve, continuing their duties for the rest of the year.
Normally, grandmothers and mothers of the family will cook a lot of delicacies such as new harvest steamed sticky rice or plain porridge. They clean and decorate the altar with fresh flowers and fruits. On the altar also laid three votive paper caps, the yellow one in the middle for Mrs. Tao and two black ones for two Mr. Tao.
Along with these preparations, a |
large bowl of water with one live large |
golden carp or three small |
ones is kept aside. The carps are all |
alive and will be freed |
into a pond, lake or river after the |
worshipping ceremo- |
nies are finished. Tao Quan |
can only travel up to |
the Heavens with the help of |
golden carps, as carp |
is used to be the Heavens’ |
animal and is a very |
good swimmer. |
Freeing the carps is |
also to show human’ s respect |
and gratitude towards |
animal worlds, and wishing for |
the good fortune of the up- |
coming year. Nowadays, the image |
of Tao Quan is so familiar that |
they even appear in many dramatics, |
movies or TV shows on the occasion of |
Tet Festival. |
Kitchen Gods are believed as the first gods leaving earth to report, followed by others on the next day. Within the absence of all of the gods, household members start cleaning their houses and decorating them beautifully with a plenty of accessories— a process that must be done before the New Year’ s Day as the appearance of cleaning equipment after that equals sweeping all the good luck away. In addition, people buy and / or prepare items exclusive in Tet Holiday( for example: Chung cake, Day cake, pork bologna, pickled onion, candied fruits and seeds)— mainly foods that can be stored for a long time as all services are closed in the event, for about two weeks. Also, they buy new clothes, and give gift to their families, relatives as well as friends. One thing to remember is that everybody needs to pay all of the debt as remaining debts from one year to another is considered bringing bad lucks.
Traditional flowers for Tet holiday.
Like the Western Christmas tree, Vietnamese also use many kinds of flowers and plants to decorate their house in this special period. Some names can be listed out: Chrysanths, marigold, Mao Ga flower, paperwhite flower, lavender, to name a few. Some people nowadays even use orchid and rose, although this is not yet popular. And above all, there are 3 kinds of plants that can not be missing in Tet holidays: peach flower, ochna integerrima and marumi kumquat.
Peach flower and marumi kumquat are familiar in the North while South people prefer ochna itegerrima for Tet holidays. Another reason is the characteristics of the plants. While marumi kumquat and peach trees grow well in cold weather, ochna integerrima just can survive in tropical lands with lots of sunshine.
Tet Food
Xoi( Sticky rice) is a very important part of Tet holiday in Vietnam, since the meals to worship the ancestors can not forget this dish. Xoi in Tet holidays can be seen in many forms: Xoi Lac( sticky rice with peanuts), Xoi Do Xanh( sticky rice with mung bean), Xoi Gac( sticky rice with special“ gac” fruit). Among these types, xoi gac is favorite the most by people because of its special red color – symbolizes the luck and new achievement for the New Year. Xoi is usually served with Gio Cha or boiled chicken in Tet meals. Sometimes it can be served with Che( sweet soup) like a dessert. This dish is mainly for the people of North Vietnam
Gio Cha( Vietnamese ham / sausage) is usually served with Xoi( sticky rice) and Banh Chung. Gio is different from Cha since Gio is boiled and Cha is deep-fried. Vietnamese people make Gio from lean meat, added fish sauce and covered by leaves then boiled for hours. Cha is also made of lean pork and ingredients, but Cha is not wrapped by leaves and boiled but deep-fried in oil.
20 The MAG Vung Tau