Tet is one of the biggest and most important occasions in Vietnam.
People have been preparing for Tet holiday for weeks, and in some cases, even for months.
During this special time of the year, people usually flock to the streets to buy flowers, new clothes, foods,
ingredients, furniture, and things like that to decorate their house to celebrate this event.
My family has been preparing things since the start of the break, buying things like jams, candies, and
decorations. Today my mom and I will purchase some flowers to make our living room more vibrant and
livelier.
The famous flower market in Nam Dinh city is always crowded with people, especially during this time
of the year, full of sellers and buyers making trades and exchanges.
Here, you can find flowers and plants of all kinds, lilies, violet, dahlia, yellow daisy, orchids of all colors,
sunflowers, … Every kind you can list, there will be some to consider.
We intend to buy some lilies – my mom’s favorite and also a must have in our house, and maybe a pot of
Dahlia flowers as well.
Unfortunately, the sellers don’t have much to offer in daytime, so we only get the Dahlia flowers pot, and
that’s enough for today.
Pre – Tet period can also be considered as National Cleaning Days. It has become the traditional thing, a
specific activity that involves every member of the family. The motive behind this is that during the first 3
days of Lunar New Year, we cant sweep or clean the house because it will be considered as ‘throwing all
the fortune away’ (according to my grandmother), and people also want to make a good impression when
there are guests. And also, who wants their house be all messy and dirty during the very first days of the
New Year? Moreover, this kind of activity also contributes to strengthening the bond between family’s
members, considering all the hard manual work and constant needs of collaboration to make the house all
shiny and bright.
There is one custom that I find most young people feel alien with (especially my classmates) is bathing in
coriander water. My brother and I have been practicing this habit since we were little because my mom
believes that the water will clear all the things from the past year away, keeping us all clean and healthy
to greet the New Year.
There are also many more traditions like releasing 3 big carps to bid the Kitchen God, bid our ancestors
farewell and prepare the offering tray, but that are all adult’ works so I don’t have the opportunity of
recording.
Countdown to 4 hours before midnight. At around 8pm, my family will gather at the living room to watch
an annual show called “Gặp nhau cuối năm”.
10pm, I don’t have much to do so I decide to watch some kdrama
11pm, a brief walk with my bestie since we are bored
Countdown 5 minutes before
