Tet or "Vietnamese Lunar New Year", is the most important and popular holiday and festival
in Vietnam. It is the Vietnamese New Year marking the arrival of spring based on the
Chinese calendar, a lunisolar calendar.
Tet is celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year, though exceptions arise due to the
one-hour time difference between Hanoi and Beijing resulting in the alternate calculation
of the new moon.
In the period leading up to Tet, the country is abuzz with preparations. Guys on motorbikes
rush around delivering potted tangerine trees and flowering bushes, the traditional household
decorations. People get a little bit stressed out and the elbows get sharper, especially
in big cities, where the usual hectic level of traffic becomes almost homicidal. Then
a few days before Tet the pace begins to slow down, as thousands of city residents depart
for their ancestral home towns in the provinces. Finally on the first day of the new year an
abrupt transformation occurs: the streets become quiet, almost deserted. Nearly all
shops and restaurants close for three days.
In the major cities, streets are decorated with lights and public festivities are organized
which attract many thousands of residents. But for Vietnamese, Tet is mostly a private,
family celebration. On the eve of the new year, families gather together and exchange
good wishes and gifts of "lucky money". In the first three days of the year, the daytime
hours are devoted to visiting - houses of relatives on the first day, closest friends
and important colleagues on the second day, and everyone else on the third day. Many people
also visit pagodas. The evening hours are spent drinking and gambling or chatting, playing,
singing karaoke, and enjoying traditional snacks and candy.