International New Year Day (Official Holiday)

TET Nguyen Dan (Official Four-Day Holiday. 1st through the 4th day of the first lunar month however most celebrate the holiday through the 7th day. (Official holiday)

Founding of the Communist Party. Originally founded by Ho Chi Minh in a Hong Kong soccer stadium on 3 February 1930 (Official holiday)

International Women's Day.

Thanh Minh, worship and renovation of the dwellings of the dead. 5th day of the 3rd lunar month.

Vietnamese can be seen throughout the country cleaning the graves of their ancestors on this day.

Saigon Liberation Day. The day which the armed forces of northern Vietnam entered Saigon and reunified the country (Official Holiday).

International Labor Day (Official Holiday).

Ho Chi Minh's Birthday (Official holiday)

Buddha's Birthday. 8th day of the fourth lunar month (Official holiday)

Children's Day.

Feast of the Wandering Souls and Hungry Ghosts (Trung Nguyen). 15th day of the 7th lunar month. Paper money is burned for absolution and generous offerings of food are made to deceased relatives whom it is believed will wander into the homes of their offspring on this day.

Mid-Autumn Festival. September/October: 15-day of the 8th lunar Month. Children parade through the streets following lanterns and generous portions of "Moon Cakes" made of sticky rice and lotus seeds, the yokes of duck eggs and sugar are consumed.

National Day of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Commemorates the Vietnamese declaration of independence from the French on 2 September 1945 in Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi. Excellent day for photography throughout Vietnam. (Official holiday)

Teacher's Day. Teachers throughout Vietnam are honored this day with gifts from their students.

Christmas. Vietnam is only 10% Christian, the country has designated this holiday as a national one. (Official Holiday)

The TET Holiday

TET Travel Considerations

TET (the Chinese New Year) is not a good period to visit Vietnam for several reasons: the streets are near empty on the first day of TET and remain so for up to 4-days; Vietnamese want to be with their families, not working; airline tickets to and from Vietnam during the TET period are difficult to obtain and are offered at a premium price.

While the days leading up to TET are joyous days, at midnight on the commencement of TET, the country goes silent. Only very gradually over the next week does it return to normal.

Based on the lunar calendar, the dates for the commencement of the TET holidays change each year:

• 2007 - 18 February
• 2008 - 7 February
• 2009 - 26 January
• 2010 - 14 February
• 2011 - 3 February

Each year is a different year under the twelve Zodiac signs: dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig, rat, cow, tiger and rabbit. Each of these twelve Zodiac years sequentially rotates and thus reappears in 12-year cycles.

TET is the most important holiday of the year to Vietnamese; in fact, Vietnamese from all around the world return to their ancestral homes for this special holiday. It marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year, a new beginning and an end of the old. Though it is officially a four-day holiday, in reality it is a week or longer to many Vietnamese.

But TET in rooted deeply in the past, in the rice culture of the millennia which have woven Vietnamese and Chinese civilizations together in tight family units. TET is the end of 12-months of labor and a period of festivity, rest, contemplation, a time to memorialize and remember one's ancestors, and a time to aspire for the future. It is a time to end the quarrels of the past and to resume one's activities with a new vigor, outlook and attitude.

The days prior to TET are joyous and the holiday can be seen on the faces of all; people clean their homes and paint them; homes are decorated; joyful scenes fill the streets and moon cakes area sold. Prior to TET is an occasion for shopping for new clothes, TET flowers and foods, and gifts. It is a time to pay off all debts and returning all things that were borrowed and for all to indulge in sweets: dried sugared fruits and shredded coconuts, lotus seeds and ginger roots find there way to tables across the land.

In the south and north homes are decorated with blossomed branches of peach and plumb trees, yellow in the south and red in the north.

On the eve of the lunar New Year houses of worship conduct masses, and ceremonies in pagodas and temples are preformed and family altars are adorned with fresh flowers, fruits and joss sticks.

Before 1996 TET was greeted by the loud sounds of firecrackers and fireworks; that year the firecrackers and fireworks were silenced forever in Vietnam: they were banned by the government; too many people were injured as a result of the fireworks. Now the most sounds that one will here at midnight on the beginning of TET are the clanging of lids and shouting.

One week before midnight of TET the "Kitchen God," Ong Tau, the Taoist God of the Hearth, is sent to the heavens to inform the ancestors of the TET Holiday and report on all of the activities of the household for the past year.

In the evenings prior to TET sticky rice is cooked in large containers on the streets throughout the country. There are two different types of sticky rice: in the north Banh Chung is prepared while in the south Banh Tet is prepared; the main differences being the shapes of the rice cakes: the northern one is square and the southern one is round, but the ingredients are nearly the same: glutinous rice is placed on banana leaves followed by yellow beans and pork. It is then wrapped and boiled for about 10-hours.

At midnight on TET the Vietnamese conduct a ceremony in front of the family altar raying for ancestors, happiness, prosperity, and longevity, and inviting ancestors in the form of their spirits to return home to enjoy a meal with the family. The ensuing week is marked by festive foods, rituals and superstitions: for example, whom one meets first, second and third after the commencement of TET is a fortuitous sign for the new year; people have been known to flee when hey do not want to accost someone. The first day of TET is thought to be the propitious day for the entire New Year and will determine one's fortune for the entire year and the first person entering one's door determines the entire year. In many cases nothing is left to chance: invitation letters are pre-issued to successful, good natured, well-to-do people to be the first to enter their home and bring a year of good luck and prosperity.

Li xi (pronounced: lee-see), or "Lucky Money" is expected to be given by older people to younger people in brightly colored red envelopes.

Nearly everything is closed during TET: banks, private offices, government offices, restaurants, and just about everything else. It only slowly comes to life again four-or-more days after TET.

On balance the TET holiday is an intensely personal family holiday, much the same as Christmas is in Western countries.

Before you go: