Vietnamese New Year Traditions

`The Hmong New Year is a cultural celebration that occurs annually, in the months of November and December, in areas where large Hmong population exists. In this speech, I am going to share the three main components that make up the celebration of Hmong New Year, such as the culture of the food, tradition clothes, and the activities that are involved.

They wouldn’t get to eat as much food. They wouldn’t be enjoying their precious time with their family. Instead they would be working hard in the fields to earn a sufficient living wage. But Chinese New Year was a time when they felt they were on top. They thought that they were living the high life. They “all looked forward to, the one time when we would be guaranteed wonderful food, was the Chinese New Year.” It was one joyous occasion that helped them to endure their destitute lives.

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

When I was a toddler, my family visited Vietnam for the first time together. It was the also the first time my mom returned since she got married and immigrated to the United States. We arrived around the time of the Mid-Autumn Festival that summer. The humid streets swelled with clusters of vendors selling handmade paper lanterns, small candles, vibrant-colored toys, and a variety of cakes.

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.

The traditional view the Vietnamese have on their social duties dervies on more a folklore explaining the origin of Vietnam. “The mountain-meet-ocean geographical characteristic of Vietnam is significant to the cultural identity of Vietnamese women, because the culture associates mountains with fatherhood and the ocean with motherhood…Vietnamese associate their myth of origin with the reconciled conflict of a divorce, where Mother, whose nature was that of water, took the form of a bird and flew to the mountains, and Father, whose nature was that of the mountains, took the

The Vietnam War escalated tension and anxiety in America and South Vietnam after North Vietnamese commander, Vo Nguyen Giap launched the Tet Offensive in the early morning of January 30th 1968. The traditional Buddhist New Year’s holiday, Tet, called on a day of ceasefire between the two Vietnamese nations, as it had in previous years. Vo Nguyen Giap aimed to extinguish the war in a ‘single blow’ and cause an uprising, effectively leading the Americans to withdraw and retreat South Vietnam into communist hands. After multiple surprise attacks on American strongholds and populated South Vietnamese cities, the anti-communist forces were caught, ‘unprepared’. American’s were initially called to Vietnam to contain the spread of communism into

The term Tet is synonymous with New Year and it is a celebration in Vietnam that is spent with family. Tet is the Vietnamese lunar New Year, a sacred holiday during which for several days the Vietnamese people participate in traditional celebrations, hold street festivals, and worship revered ancestors at family altars. The Tet Offensive is a major battle that occurred during the Tet holiday and is considered by many people a major turning point in the Vietnamese War.

Every culture is unique because of their social customs. There are many different people with different social and cultural backgrounds. Our group consists of two Chinese-Americans and one Vietnamese-American. Our report is on the social customs of our respective cultures. Our purpose is to gather information about our social customs so that we can inform our audience. We researched dining etiquette, gift-giving etiquette, wedding customs, festival celebrations, and family customs for Chinese and Vietnamese cultures. We conducted our research using secondary sources, such as the Web, along with primary sources, such as an interview. Our audience can benefit greatly because they will become comfortable with the customs of the Chinese and Vietnamese people. They can impress their friends with how knowledgeable they will become after reading our report. The audience will know what not to do so that

In addition, the period of New Year celebration between these two countries is not the same. New Years in the United States only has two days to celebrate. People celebrate on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. After New Year Day, everything will be back to normal, people are back to their work, and be ready for a new year ahead. However, the spirit of Tet in Vietnamese people usually lasts more than a week, but the Tet official is the first three days of January in lunar calendar. The first day of Tet is the day for family. People gather together to wish everybody in the family the best year ahead; then elderly people give red envelops that have money inside to younger people which is considering as“lucky money.” The second day is a day for visiting relative, teacher or special guest. The third day is a day for friends or just stay at home to enjoy the food and the spirit of Tet. Although Tet is only the first three days to celebrate; people are keep saying “Happy New Year” when they see each other during the following week. The atmosphere of Tet is still inside everybody.

There is usually a small Buddhist statue in everyone’s house. They also go to the temples to show their respect and pray for their families and friends. The temples are usually packed during holidays. For example, during Lunar New Year, almost everyone will go there and hope that they will have a happy and prosperous year. Besides that, Vietnamese people are also profoundly influenced by the practice of ancestor worship, as well as native animism. Most Vietnamese, regardless of religious denomination, practice ancestor worship and have an ancestor altar at their home or business. This shows how much Vietnamese care about being respectful and filial to their

Today I will be telling you what the animals mean to the people, what to do to prepare for the new year, and what you do on the days of the new year.

In the celebration of the local holidays and traditions of our country, we get to experiences new things that we don’t know about and it provides memories that will last a lifetime. We also have more time with our family and friends. It contributes a sense of comfort and happiness. I know more things during the time I spend with my family on holidays. For instance, when I was six years old, there was a day that my parent takes the whole family visiting my relatives’ houses. My parent told me to say “Happy New Years and wish you have the best luck this year.” to that person and then they give me a red envelope. I don’t know the reason why. When I got home, I open it and see twenty dollars, I am so happy. I did it every year and I come to realize the reason, it’s because what I say makes them happy and they give me money so that throughout the year I will get lucky too. But that don’t last long because my family moves to America and they don’t do that here, it’s sad. Nevertheless, I still thankful that I got to know those things before I

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