Tet Vietnam

TET VIETNAM – Year of the Horse

Hai and I were lucky enough this year to enjoy a whole host of holidays together with friends and family in the USA.  There was Thanksgiving in San Diego with our good friend Pat.  Then there was the annual Christmas Eve potluck, gourmet feast in Berkeley with a score of long-time friends.  Then New Years Eve (the western one) in Mendocino sharing a wonderful Dungeness crab feast dinner with Jan and Antonio.

And now, TET VIETNAM – quite an amazing event!

Actually, it’s not really an event at all.  More like a series of ideas, beliefs, and traditions.  Or, at another level, a checklist of activities, purchases, foods and places that must be accomplished and eaten over a period of days – preferably in the right sequence.

Cleaning – We arrived back in Saigon, after our USA travel adventure, to find pre-Tet preparations at Hai’s restaurant, Đông Hoa Xuân Restaurant, already we’ll under way. New street signs, a newly tiled front surface, fresh paint throughout, the annual “deep scrubbing” of all appliances, surfaces, etc.

Now, all would be ready for the upcoming family Tet gatherings and meals here – as well as to impress the now deceased ancestors who would be invited to return for the first few days of TET VIETNAM.

A very moving day for me as I helped (mostly watched) Hai and his family tend to the grave site of Hai’s mother.  It was truly beautiful to see such love and joy shared at the cemetery that day.  FAMILY – certainly the most wonderful part of TET VIETNAM.

And then there was that morning last week at home, when I woke to find Hai sweeping and mopping the floors, dusting all surfaces and generally making the house “spic and span” (not at all a normal occurrence).  What going on? …. Oh yes, it was TET VIETNAM 🙂 . (NOTE: Never sweep during Tet, it sweeps away the New Year’s luck).

Shopping Frenzy – First, try to visualize this – the shopping madness of a USA shopping mall the weekend before Christmas. Now add the complete chaos and lawlessness of Saigon’s infamous motorbike traffic (except double the chaos part and have all the drivers texting on cell phones). Toss in roving vegetable carts, flapping chickens, oblivious pedestrians and wrong way traffic.  You can just begin to imagine the joyous insanity shared by Saigon’s 12++ millions of residents as they frantically search out their obligatory TET VIETNAM purchases – quả dưa hấu (watermelons), quả bưởi (pamelo fruit), candles, incense, red envelopes, kumquat trees, cây mai (yellow flowering trees), cây đào (pink flowering peach trees), hoa cúc (yellow chrysanthemums), and innumerable traditional Tet foods and sweets. Oh yes, and sprinkle many of the drivers with a dose of holiday beer and rice wine.

 

 

Eating, Eating, and more Eating – Yes, the foods of TET VIETNAM. First, it’s important to understand that nearly all (I’d guess nearly 98%) of Saigon’s street food vendors and neighborhood eateries are closed for 3-10 days during the Tet holiday period.  These leads to millions needing to plan and cook for those “nowhere-to-eat-days” and for food to offer returning ancestors. That’s where the foods of TET VIETNAM come in, prepared at home and purchased in the pre-Tet shopping frenzy.

• Bánh Tết / Bánh chưng – sticky rice, pork and mung bean cake
• Giò Chả – Vietnamese ground sausage
• Thịt Gà  – Boiled chicken
• Xoi Gac – Red-colored sticky rice
• Mứt Tết – Candied fruits & roasted nuts

and dozens of other local variations on traditional Tet yummies.

One of the highlights of the Year of the Horse’s Tet holiday festivities for me was the wee-hour morning that Hai and I shared with a family making hundreds of kilos of giò chả (more on that wonderful experience in an upcoming post).

Welcoming the Ancestors – What would Mom and Dad like when they return to visit me from the great beyond for those few days of Tet (and I wondered would they even consider venturing to Vietnam for an ancestral visit?)  A few Pepperidge Farm cookies with her nightly cup of tea for Mom, and a jar of spaghetti sauce for Dad would adorn our Tet altar this year.  Hai opted for the more traditional Vietnamese food snacks for his returning folks, quả dưa hấu, quả bưởi, and bánh chung.

Worshipping – Midnight New Years Eve, Mùng 1 (the 1st day of TET VIETNAM),  Mùng 2 (the 2nd day), the 3rd, …  the 10th … off to the temple.  Give Buddha thanks for the past years’ successes and wish for better things to come for ones self and loved ones (daily visits to the temple just might help ensure those wishes will be realized in the coming months).

And further, the Buddhist temple just might be the only place in Saigon to find a moment of peace as everyone quietly offer his or her thanks and registers their dreams and wishes for the future behind a cloud of incense smoke.

“Lucky Money” – I’ve discovered that there’s a major disadvantage to being nearly the “oldest” member of the family in Vietnam.  That means everyone at the New Year’s party has a “legal right” to line up in front of you, recite a few rote phrases of  New Year’s tidings, and solicit a “li xi.”  That’s a small red envelope, tastelessly decorated and, of course, filled with cash.

Now, typically, a small amount of Vietnamese dong will suffice.  But, as “an American” trying to impress the in-laws, I had to carefully consider the size of the “lucky money” grant.  My semi-creative solution of including the ever-popular USA $2 bill in each envelope seemed to please the masses, particularly and importantly since the #2 is an even and therefore luckier number.

Traveling – The airplanes and buses are fully-booked. Flight tickets and hotel room prices are way up!  Local buses are stacked with the baggage of those heading out of town.  Most of Vietnam’s 95 million residents are on the move, mostly heading back to nhà quê their “countryside homes”. And Hai and I are settled into a surprisingly comfortable sleeper chair on a mid-sized bus off to see friends in the Mekong Delta’s city of Rạch Giá (more on that trip and wonderful food in an upcoming post!)

But, at the end of the day, it’s all FAMILY FAMILY FAMILY.  Our time back in Saigon celebrating TET VIETNAM with Hai’s family has been special indeed.

 Chúc Mừng Năm Mới !

TET VIETNAM sadly has now come to an end once again.  Good luck to all in the Year of the Horse.

 Just a bit more about TET VIETNAM here.