Essay about New Year Celeration Between Vietnam and America

Unfortunately, Vietnamese Americans make up only a small percent of the total American Population today. There are many stereotypes associated with the Vietnamese, but the truth is, we really know very little about their culture. After the Viet Nam War, many Vietnamese citizens immigrated to the United States to escape political Prosecution and poverty. Faced with a variety of obstacles and

D. These huge ornaments are called the New Year's display in Japan. E. A tradition for the Japanese people is to visit a shrine or temple during New Year's. F. According to gojapan.about.com, some temples and shrines expect a couple million visitors during New Year's holidays each year.

For this paper I will examine Vietnamese culture according to the five essential questions all cultures must answer (according to Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck). I will then take those answers and compare then to out culture here in America. I realize that some might argue that using North American culture as a starting point is an attempt to simplify this writing, but I believe that any initial examination of something new is most effectively done in comparison to what one already knows.

Vietnamese language is unique, a combination of phonetic inflection and tonal variations. Luan (2011), states that Vietnamese language “reflects contributions from many ethnic groups” and further describes it as “a singing and musical language”. China had a major influence in Vietnam’s language, having occupied Vietnam for 1,000 years. During Chinese rule, Vietnamese language assimilated many Chinese words, changing pronunciation to align with Vietnamese language structure. Even after the Chinese rule ended Vietnamese still used Chinese characters in writing until the 1900’s. Vietnam adopted many cultural ideas from China, the lunar New Year is celebrated in both countries. While keeping in common the celebration of the lunar New

Christmas means a lot to the Haitian culture because this signifies the birth of Jesus. They celebrate the birth of Jesus and mourn during the dates of December 23- January 6. New Year’s

Being Chinese-Vietnamese American, I have always seen myself as being very unique. In addition to celebrating the Western holidays such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, and Valentine’s Day, my family celebrates our mixture of Chinese and Vietnamese cultures with two other big holidays: Lunar New Year and Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. Although many cultures celebrate holidays differently, one thing is always consistent in most of these celebrations: the important role of food.

Cuba’s celebrations are greatly reduced ever since Fidel Castro outlawed it in 1969. Today, it is celebrated with not as much festivity as other countries. Columbia celebrates the Christmas season much earlier than most, starting on December 7th to have “The Day of the Candles.” They also have families gather each night for nine days to perform religious prayers called novenas. In Spain, they start the winter solstice with “Hogueras,” which lets people jump over fires to symbolize that they are going to overcome sickness that winter. Mexico is well known for their Christmas ornaments and for their three holidays, Las Posadas, La Fiesta de Reyes and Las Pastorelas. Each country differs on giving gifts to children. In Spain, children receive gifts from the Three Wise Men as recalled to into the Bible. They leave their shoes outside on January 5th and the next day, Epiphany, children get candy and cakes. Mexico also has the tradition of letting children open their Christmas presents on Epiphany, however, the night before, they write a letter to the Three Wise Men asking for what they want. In Columbia, it is baby Jesus that reads the letter of what children want. They leave the letter under the tree on December 24th and open presents the day after. Sadly, for Cuba, ever since the decline of Christmas in 1969, Christmas isn’t celebrated like other countries. However, before that,

I experienced many different cultures, ethnicities and traditions when my family lived in Thailand. We lived in a Refugee camp and it was not like an America society. Every month, a volunteer group from a big city would aid every family in the refugee camp with bags of rice depending on how many people are in your family. There were about ten schools in the camp which were public schools and Catholic schools. Schools and houses were built out of bamboo and trees, and the buildings don't last more than a decade. Life was not easy in Thailand. Not every parent had a job and they found other ways to make money to provide for their families. There were many cultures and different ethnicities living in the same area and our neighbors spoke different languages and they were from different ethnic groups. There are many holidays and cultural traditions that we celebrate every year by dancing, playing music, and having big festivals.

First, Chinese Americans preserve their ethnic identities through holidays. One of the biggest holidays is the Chinese New Year. The Chinese New Year is different from the regular New Years in that it relies on the moon cycles instead of the western calendar, so it falls on different days each year. There is a lot of preparation that goes into the Chinese New Year. People start cleaning their houses and decorating them with spring couplets on the twentieth day of the twelfth moon. Spring couplets are short poems written on red scrolls of paper in black. A popular New Years tradition in the United States is the exchanging of red envelopes containing money, which are called hong-bao. Most families spend this holiday celebrating together because this holiday, above others, emphasizes family and family ties.

Another big difference of both countries is food. Vietnamese foods include: rice or noodles, meat, and vegetables in every meal. Almost every Vietnamese meal is sit down rather than grab and go. Vietnamese cuisine mostly focuses on varieties of vegetables and herbs in every dish. A Vietnamese dinner normally includes white rice, a small plate of typical sauce, a bowl of soup, a dish of vegetables, and two dishes of animal meat, which could be pork, beef, fish, and chicken. The vegetables can be made with plenty of different methods: boil, steam, fry, grill, or sometimes we eat raw. The main spices Vietnamese people use to make their food are garlics, peppers, sugar, monosodium glutamate, chicken bouillon, and fish sauce. That makes a harmonious mixture of sweet, spicy, salty taste.

In what concerns cultural practices, Yang, Kou studied the 30th annual Hmong New Year event celebrated in the United States, defined as a unique Hmong festival, which turns to be the occasion of displaying the Hmong culture. However, the researcher noted that this New Year event was also dominated by other activities and concepts, largely influenced by the American culture. Therefore, the research aimed at presented the Hmong New Year in the USA as a festival that combines two cultures. However, the paper missed to present the influence of said Festival on the Hmong international community.

You personally have your favorite holiday here, but for the Chinese the Lunar New Year is hands down the most important festal to everyone.

As I had mentioned, Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the chinese Lunisolar Calendar. Ancient Chinese New Year is a reflection on how the people behaved and what they believed in the most. In the celebration of the Chinese New Year, people

Vietnam has variety types of food for every occasion, from an everyday meal to New Year’s festivities food. The flavor of the Vietnamese food varies from sweet, sour, salty, and spicy. However, rice, the

Chinese New Year is the most widely celebrated tradition in Asia. The tradition is usually celebrated on the first day of the first month on the Chinese Lunar calendar. This tradition is rooted in centuries-old customs and is one of the most popular public holidays in China. Apart from China, this tradition is also celebrated in many Asian countries like Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and Japan. There are many values and rituals tied with this tradition. For example, people would wear red clothing, decorate the house with red paper, and give children "lucky money" in red envelopes. According to legend, it is said that red can drive away bad luck, which is why the color red is highly emphasized. In myths, our ancestors would