TET

Tet is Vietnamese Lunar New Year, a very important holiday and festival time Vietnam, marking the arrival of spring and of course welcoming the New Year. Tet derived from the Chinese calendar and is celebrated over the same days as the Chinese New Year. For the Vietnamese people Tet is like Christmas, Easter and New Year all rolled into one holiday. Everything shuts down in Vietnam as families travel “home” and visit relatives. Tet also involves giving, eating and celebrating with food. As yesterday was the 12 th day after Christmas all the Christmas decorations around Ho Chi Minh City have disappeared literally over night and are currently being replaced with Tet New Year yellow and red decorations. Red is for luck and yellow marks spring. The Christmas shops that popped up in the lead in to Christmas have re-branded themselves as Tet shops. And why not if there is a Dong to be made?
The staff who worked hard one Saturday to decorate the foyer of our apartment building with lights, a Christmas tree, stockings hanging around a fireplace and Christmas card type snow scenes, yes even here in HCMC, are now busy creating and hanging dragons and decorating the foyer for TET. Yahoo!