Tet in Vietnam Edit by Nguyen Viet Hoang and Nguyen Quang Minh

Lunar New Year TM

As two handsome VietNamese students, wed like to present you about our Lunar New Year Festival (TET NGUYEN DAN in Vietnamese), an oncoming occasion. It is a national and traditional festival in Vietnam and in Eastern in general. It takes place in next month, from 1st to 3rd. In Lunar Calendar, this period is corresponding to the first three days of New Year. In Vietnamese, we often call this occasion Tet. Since it is the biggest festival in a year in our country, Vietnamese people have many activities to celebrate this occasion. Several days before the main festive day, in every corners of our country, people prepare many things with a great eagerness. Painting houses, preparing Tet food, holding flower festivals all over the countryare some main activities on Tet occasion. After a year flooded with work, people prefer to refresh themselves on Tet. For personals and students, this is a 7-day holiday to relax. Workers stop working, students stop studying in class several days before Tet, to prepare. We strongly believe that all of you are excited about our special food on Tet. So, lets take a look on some of them! Pic In North of Vietnam, the weather is often cold on this period. On the other hand, South of Vietnam always experiences hot weather. Therefore, there are some differences in Tet eating and drinking between these 2 regions. The main food of North is a kind of cake called Chung cake .In English, its called sticky rice cake.

It is made from rice, boiled bean, pork and pepper inside. All of them are covered by Dong leaves. And this is the making process of Chung cakes: Its rather complicated to make a Chung cake. And it takes us about 8 hours to boil them. People prefer to gather around the cooking fire and wait until it finish. Its really warm and interesting to do so. In South, we have tet cakes. Its also green-covered.

Another special meal in Tet days is Nem (Spring roll): Vietnamese people from the ancient time would like to have a flowerpot to make their houses more beautiful. In North, the traditional kind of flower for Tet is Peach blossom Dao flower (/dau/) Dao flower is the symbol of happiness and blissfulness in Vietnam. In South, we have Mai flower or Apricot Blossom. Mai is very beautiful with its bright yellow flowers and fresh green shoots. They are only something special on Tet occasion in Vietnam . We also have many ceremonies around the country to celebrate our biggest holiday. And now Ill let Minh talk about them. Then Minh will show his opinion and conclude .