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The Vietnamese New Year and Children’s Moon Festival         The Tet festival began thousands of years ago when Vietnamese farmers held joyous feasts and ceremonies to thank the gods that spring had once again arrived. That is when the Vietnamese farmers prayed for a successful year in growing crops. Till this day, Tet is still considered to be a very important event in the Vietnamese communities. It’s an occasion where families, friends, and relative come together to celebrate the rich event.
        The Vietnamese New Year is usually celebrated in late January or early February, depending on lunar calendar. Although the celebration lasts for more than a week, officially, it is celebrated for only three days. The Vietnamese people believe the events in the first day of the Tet New Year will set the course for the next twelve months. The Vietnamese New Year is a celebration of the beginning of spring as well as the welcome the New Year. It is also a time for reunion of members in the family to show faith and respect to ancestors and the elders. It is also to express love and care for friends and relatives to share forgiveness to on another, and most of all, it is a time to relax and enjoy after a year of hard work.
        In planning for the Vietnamese New Year, there are four important items, which can be seen in and around every household. Neu, is the most representative object of the New Year, it is a stake of bamboo placed in the ground, in front of the house for seven days. Hoa Mai, is a small yellow or pink flower with five to eight petals. It represents the spirit of Tet and also symbolizes prosperity and well being for the family. The third item, bang chung is a rice cake made of leap rice, peas and pork. It is covered by three or four layers of banana leaves and cooked for a very long time. This cake is highly symbolic of the strong and intimate relationship between Vietnamese people and their environment. The green of the banana leaves represents the sky, and the cake inside, the earth. The last item is firecrackers. They are to drive off evil spirits. So every year on Tet, the people would make a lot of noise to keep away bad spirits and leave good luck in their place.
        In the Vietnamese culture, there’s strong belief in the Vietnamese New Year that is still being followed today. One of these superstitions is not to sweep the floors during the days of the New Year otherwise you'll be sweeping out the good fortune. With this in mind, they all clean their house before the New Years begin. It is believed that if the first animal to cry is a rooster, then the harvest for that year may be poor. They also believe that the characteristic and fortune of the first visitor who enter their home will effect the family fortune for the rest of the year. For example, if a visitor represents success or prosperity, the family will have good luck.. Lastly, the people normally wear red because they believe that red signifies good luck.
        Children are given red envelope that contains money in it. This is known as “li-xi.” The parents, Uncle, Aunts, Grandparents, and other relatives as gift give this envelope. The money is a gift of good luck and it is also an expectation from the parents to the children. They expect their children to do well in school and everything else in the upcoming year, in hope that this money will help them earn many times more in the future.
        Besides all the superstitions, there are also many other activities includes making a New Year tree. In this activity, you put a tree or clump of bamboo in a pot and decorate it with red streamers, colored balls and paper flowers. One other activity is to serve watermelon for the children’s morning or afternoon tea. The watermelons are considered to be lucky because of their red flesh. Another activity is to make or buy envelopes for the children to give to each other or to their family. Coins usually go inside the envelope, but you could have the children make pretend money, write letters or the younger children can make pictures. If you have an old Monopoly set at home that you don’t use anymore, you could use Monopoly money instead. The forth activity is to make a Lunar Calendar which will represent the children’s years of birth. You can put the children’s name against the respective year and animal symbol and/or have pictures to give to the children so they can color in and take home or they can draw them themselves. The last activity is to buy some boxes of animal crackers and give the appropriate animal cracker to the children. In short, the Vietnamese new Years festival is a time to review the past, enjoy the present, and plan for the future. Tet-Trung-Thu (Mid-Autumn or Children’s Moon Festival)          Tet-Trung-Thu also known as the Mid-Autumn or Children’s Moon Festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the oriental calendar. It is the second most popular Vietnamese festivals. The festival starts at the dawn of agriculture civilization, which dates back to some fifteen to twenty thousand years in Southeast Asia. Over many centuries, the Tet-Trung-Thu has been a special time for everyone to rejoice in the spirit of autumn
        The purpose of Tet-Trung-Thu is to promote education, innovative ideas, music, sports, arts and crafts, poetry and especially love for the you generation. The sights that will be seen are captivating panorama with the children'’ lantern procession, colorful shows, songs and dances. Family and friends gather at the festival, drink fragrant teas, recite poetry, and discuss education and art. Flavors of Tet-Trung-Thu offers are the unique flavors of mid-autumn with such delicacies as moon cake, lotus seed paste cake, mung been cake, and fragrant teas, The sounds that Tet-Trung-Thu provides are pleasant sounds of children’s laughter, upbeat music from the Lan dance drum, and distinctive children'’ songs, which will bring a smile to everyone’s face.
        The festival begins at noon and end at mid-night. During that time, many of the activities are being set up for entertainment. Some of these activities includes; folklore displays, children’s gardens: beloved animals, fairy tale charters, etc., children’s games: toy picking, toy fishing, etc., Lantern procession, children’s performing arts shows, Lan dances, martial arts demonstrations, exhibitions of services for children, children’s costume contest, arts and crafts exhibitions, food and drink booths, multicultural performances, essay, drawing and coloring contests, and much more.
        Just like the Vietnamese New Year the Tet-Trung-Thu have superstition that is also being recognized. The lantern is important in this event because it’s a wish for the return of the sun’s warmth and light. Each different shape of the lantern has a different meaning. So this lantern will be lit. Another important thing of the festival is the dragon dance. “The dragon dance expresses the duality of Vietnamese festivals.   The dragon dance is a re-enactment of the earth and sky duality, the yin and yang of the World.”
        As you can see, the Vietnamese New Year and Tet-Trung-Thu are two famous and important festivals that are celebrated throughout the world by the Vietnamese communities. Not only that, there are plenty of activities for all the families and friends to enjoy during this special occasion. REFERENCE

Cohen, Barbara. Mid-Autumn Children’s festival. Available
        http://www.destinationveitnam.com/dv/dv07/dv07f.htm
Hoang, Thuy-Trang. The Biggest Event of The Year.
        Available     http://www.uta.edu/english/daver/tcco/hoang1/htm
The Sixth Annual Mid-Autumn Festival.
        Available     http://www.vietgate.net/midautumn/about
Tran, Kim-Lan. Tet: The New Year. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1992.
Vietnamese New Year- 7th February, 1997.
        Available     http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~cccav/jan97/newyear.htm

PICTURES

The Dragon dance at the Six Annual Mid-Autumn Festival

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