Tết
Tết (Vietnamese: [tet̚˧˦]), short for Tết Nguyên Đán (lit. 'Festival of the first day'), is the most important celebration in Vietnamese culture. Tết celebrates the arrival of spring based on the Vietnamese calendar and usually has the date in January or February in the Gregorian calendar.
| Vietnamese New Year | |
|---|---|
A family gathering to make bánh tét for Tết celebrations. | |
| Official name | Tết Nguyên Đán |
| Also called | Tết Lunar New Year (as a collective term including other Asian Lunar New Year festivals, used outside of Asia.) |
| Observed by | Vietnamese |
| Type | Religious, Cultural, and National. |
| Significance | The first day of the Lunar New Year |
| Celebrations | fireworks, family gatherings, family meals, visiting friends' homes on the first day of the new year (xông đất), visiting friends and relatives, ancestor veneration, giving red envelopes to children and elderly, and opening a shop. |
| Date | Lunar/Lunisolar New Year's Day |
| 2023 date | 22 January, Cat |
| 2024 date | 10 February, Dragon |
| 2025 date | 29 January, Serpent |
| Frequency | Annual |
| Related to | Chinese New Year, Japanese New Year, Korean New Year, Mongolian New Year, Tibetan New Year |
Tết Nguyên Đán is not to be confused with Tết Trung Thu, which is also known as Children's Festival in Vietnam. "Tết" itself only means festival but is often colloquially known as "Lunar New Year" in Vietnamese, as it is often seen as the most important festival amongst the Vietnamese and the Vietnamese diaspora, with Tết Trung Thu regarded as the second-most important.
Vietnamese people celebrate Tết annually, which is based on a lunisolar calendar (calculating both the motions of Earth around the Sun and of the Moon around Earth). Tết is generally celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year (also called Spring Festival), with the one-hour time difference between Vietnam and China resulting in the new moon occurring on different days. Rarely, the dates of Vietnamese and Chinese Lunar New Year can differ as such in 1943, when Vietnam celebrated Lunar New Year, one month after China. It takes place from the first day of the first month of the Vietnamese lunar calendar (around late January or early February) until at least the third day.
Tết is also an occasion for pilgrims and family reunions. They set aside the trouble of the past year and hope for a better and happier upcoming year. This festival can also be referred to as Hội xuân in vernacular Vietnamese, (festival – lễ hội, spring – mùa xuân).