My family actually planned for an unusual Tet Holiday this
year. Normally, we would stay at home like many other families, make a special
Last Year meal, wait for New Year’s Eve then pay visits to relatives the
following days. But the trend is that more and more families are travelling
abroad during Tet Holiday. So somehow my parents have disposition to have itchy
feet and explore new land. The last time I heard them discussing on this, I
caught some key words like “Thailand”, “cheap ticket price”, “shopping”… I was
actually dreaming of my first overseas journey ever.
I am literally amazed at how it is possible that in
virtually any situation of our life are there buts. We were excitedly looking
forward to our a-different-Tet, BUT the flight ticket to Thailand went up by
nearly 25%. So we all accepted to enjoy a traditional Tet at home. You can say
I am not a traditional type, in fact, I find the old same way celebrating Tet
rather boring but custom is kinda hard-and-fast rule and you have no other
choice but conform to it.
In general, although we often have 2-3 weeks off for Tet Holiday,
Tet is intense during 4 important days: from the last day of the old year
(which is called 29 or 30 Tet) to the third day of the new year (3 Tet).
Basically, it’s like: tell me about those 4 days and I’ll get the whole picture
of your Tet Holiday :)
I spent several days before 29 Tet tidying up the house.
This work is supposed to be the most arduous and tiring among all Tet
activities as a result of me “letting the house be” all year long with a little
flick-off-dust once in a while. However, to my surprise, this year, I find the
clean-up thing quite easy and agreeable (compared to previous years). Besides,
I followed the advice from “How to save an hour everyday” and courageously
threw away some rarely-used and inutile stuff, which helps my room far from
being a pigsty =))
Flashback #1: In 2010, my house needed some repair
right before Tet. As you can possibly imagine, after the repair was done, paint
marks, brick debris and dusts left everywhere in the house and the yearly
cleaning activity became more challenging than ever!
29 Tet
Morning, my parents were both on duty at their offices so my
sister and I had a “duty-free” morning :P All we did was watching movies online
until we were “summoned” for a year-end lunch at my uncle’s house next door :D
Not until afternoon did we really get down to work. I helped
my parents prepare food to make offerings to our ancestors. The cooking process
went on smoothly given my fish-sauce-splash fault not counting :P
Flashback #2: Life could be either easier or harder
if you had a know-how-to-cook father but one thing I can be sure of is there
are indeed more voices in the kitchen. My parents hardly agree on how to cook a
specific dish; therefore a little fuss is no surprise. Sometimes, this got on
my nerves and ruined the holiday atmosphere but not this year fortunately
:)
I sat down with my family to dinner then watched the
end-of-year comedy show, which gave us all a good laugh. Unlike recent years, I
didn’t feel like celebrating Tet on Facebook at all. I just wanna glance
through the news feed, ‘like’ some things and post a status or two wishing tout
le monde a happy Tet holiday.
Flashback #3: Over the past 2 or 3 years, I would
always be online until New Year’s Eve, write a long status wishing everybody a
happy new year, then post on each of my close friends’ walls saying a
just-for-you message which never repeats itself every year.
This year I am fed up with this activity and find it not
rewarding enough so I decided to spend the last 15 minutes of the last year
writing my “2012 report” summarizing all memorable events and making several
resolutions which are hopefully more feasible and realizable than last year’s.
In the meantime, outside, the firework show had started.
It was almost 1 am in the first morning of Year of
Snake and I closed my eyes, falling asleep…
1 Tet
I went to my dad’s home village (not far from Hanoi) along
with my dad and my uncle’s family. I slept most of the time on the car. Every
time I opened my eyes, I looked out the window and enjoyed the tranquil scenery
along the road with green fields and very little traffic, which you don’t often
see in everyday life. Having parked our car in a yard, we headed to the nearby
pagoda, did some ritual activities then went on to visit our relatives. They
all welcomed us with a warm and cheerful attitude. Stopping by at each house,
we were treated to many kinds of sweets, cookies and tea. That’s one of the
things I love about country people.
2 Tet
It’s time for maternal relatives :) My family rode to my
grandma’s house. On the way, we passed by Sword Lake. It always looks so
beautiful during these days with thousands of flowers arranged in different
shapes and letters. A few people were walking on the lake shore. Some were
taking photos. Oh, mentioning photos, I forgot the camera at home :(
We arrived at my grandma’s house but it seemed that almost
everyone had gone to the countryside. There were only my two aunts. Auntie has
just had a baby so she had to stay at home taking care of the baby girl. The
baby looks way too cute and pretty. She didn’t cry at all, she just lay
sleeping and sometimes opened her big eyes looking at us curiously :3 We stayed
for the lunch then went on to visit some other relatives. We also went to a
pagoda where my grandma’s uncle, who was also the supreme bonze, is buried.
On the way home, we spotted a super funny scene. A man was
literally riding a…dog on his motorbike (not to the dog meat specialty
restaurant of course!). The dog “sat” still on the motorbike (in a very
human-like posture), being as docile as an obedient child. What a unique
entertaining sight!
Late that night, at about 9p.m, my doorbell rang and we’d
got a special guest – my 14-year-old cousin. She stayed with us for a night so
that my parents would ride her with us to the Temple of Literature the next
morning, as we promised to her mother. The girl takes a keen interest in books
so she spent the whole night reading and reading before falling asleep by the
books.
3 Tet
We set off to Temple of Literature and Quoc Tu Giam – the
first university in Vietnam. Many students strongly believe that visiting this
place at the beginning of the new year will bring a lot of luck to their
studies that year. I do, too. That’s why I am here with my sister and my
cousin. We went to all altar rooms and watched traditional scholars performing
calligraphy. I even considered taking a calligraphy course once but I never
made it.
I backed home, had lunch and watched US Masterchef season 3
on TV. This was the first time I’d watched this show. It was more interesting
than I thought. I soon realized there was a Vietnamese contestant in this show.
She is Christine Ha, who won the Masterchef title in the end.
In the afternoon, we prepared a hearty meal to offer to my
uncle’s family (kinda reciprocation to his year-end lunch the other day) and my
cousin’s family who would also come over to pick her up. When we set the table
for dinner, it was such a huge meal with delicious dishes which I am sure will
please even the most fastidious guest. After the dinner, I am mainly
responsible for clearing up the table and washing the dishes. You can tell how
hard the task is from the meal’s size I mention above. Fortunately, I got great
assistance from my mom and my sister :D
A travel-abroad dream shattered but a lot more joy unfolded.
I’ve drawn some conclusions about this Tet holiday which may be true to many
others :P
Plus points:
+ Long holiday, a valuable break from all kinds of
responsibilities and duties. You can also take advantage of this plenty leisure
time to pursue your hobbies, or to hang out with friends…
+ Yummy food
+ Nice weather
+ A “bailout” just-in-time =)) (from lucky money, you know
;)
Minus points:
- Gained weights
- A developed fear of returning to work/school (it does take
a lot of courage to walk up to your desk again and open the textbooks, I
guarantee)
- Uh oh, my mind’s gone blank, maybe Tet is so wonderful
that I can’t even point out one more disadvantage of it
Even though Tet may seem like a traditional holiday that
grows so colorless to certain people that they try to find a way to ‘flee’
abroad, it remains an indispensable feature of Vietnamese culture and should be
preserved forevermore. When I look back on my four Tet days, they are certainly
not new and memorable experience, I may forget about them after sometime but
what stays is the spirit that it passed to me, a truly enjoyable time in its
own way, something you can only have once every year so hold on to it and treasure
it at least as long as you are on your homeland.