Chúc mừng năm mới! Happy Vietnamese Lunar New Year!
Yes, I know that Chinese New Year gets all the glory, but the Chinese aren’t the only one that celebrates the Lunar New Year. Tết is usually a three day festival that celebrates the coming of spring (xuan). (Thank you Phil, the groundhog for reaffirming that!).
This year marks the year of the Cat. I’m not sure why our zodiac calendar differs from the Chinese one in this aspect (it’s the year of the rabbit for the Chinese). I’ll have to do some research, i.e., ask my mom.
Our family will eat the traditional new year food, bánh chưng. I’ll pass out the li xi, or lucky red envelopes with money inside. Our county library has programs running all month featuring lion dancers, so we’ll try to hit one of those too.
Sophia dressed in the traditional Vietnamese áo dài for school today. They are learning about Lunar New Year this week in preschool so we packed up some li xi with candy money for her to hand out. She’s been practicing her Vietnamese so she can tell everyone Happy New Year: Chúc mừng năm mới!
Later we’ll Skype with my parents so Sophia can wish them the traditional Vietnamese new year greeting of lucky, longevity, and fortune.
Since we’re not able to go to any sort of festival today, I think we might pull up some youtube videos about Tết and xuan.
Have a great day!