Getting ready for Tet

January 15, 2009
Happy New Year! Although January 1st is a big new year celebration for many, the most celebrated holiday here in Vietnam is Tet, or the lunar new year. The date changes from year to year, because a lunar month is 30 days long...times 12 months...equals 360 days instead of the 366 days of the calendar we follow in the United States. Actually, people in both Vietnam and China follow BOTH calendars, which makes it very interesting and fun!

This summer, in our Vietnamese class, we read about Tet and how people in Vietnam prepare for and celebrate Tet. Now that I am here in the midst of the chaos and excitement, I am reminded of what we read and it's very fun! I remember reading that people clean and paint their houses...It's true! Many buildings have a fresh coat of paint and everywhere I look, especially in Cat Tien where I notice the changes a bit more, people ARE cleaning! Bunches of leaves and other plant matter are being burned, even in and around the cities...leaving a gray haze and the worrisome smell of fire.

We also read that people buy flowers. This is really cool: all over town there are little shops that sell seasonal things. For the mid-autumn festival we saw lots of moon-cakes and red boxes (red and gold or yellow signify good fortune-women used to wear red wedding dresses before the influence of the west and white wedding dresses became so popular...white is the color of mourning here-people wear white for a funeral). Right now all the little seasonal shops are selling cakes in red boxes, and tons of beautiful flowers: pink, yellow, and red. Remember the cleaning I just mentioned? Well, many people are riding around selling feather-dusters on long bamboo sticks and lots of other cleaning supplies. The ebb and flow of life is so fascinating and new!

People also buy new clothes. Can you guess what else we've seen? Lots of shops selling clothing! Along the highway between Ho Chi Minh City and Cat Tien there are lots more tents set up selling clothes. I wonder how many people are driving on their motorbikes and suddenly decide, "I need to buy a new shirt RIGHT NOW!" and pull off to get one?

Something else very interesting...we met up with a few scholars in the city last week. Jonathan and I were sitting down at an outdoor cafe. I looked at the shop next store and noticed a man ripping the leaves off of a tree. At first I thought maybe he was taking off the dead leaves, but he wasn't. He was ripping ALL the leaves off! I couldn't figure it out. Once he finished with that tree, he moved to another one and did the same thing! Another young man brought out a bonsai tree and did the same thing to it...When we got back to Cat Tien people were taking the leaves off of the trees on BOTH sides of the road! I stopped to ask:

What are you doing?
Taking the leaves off of the trees.
Why?
To get ready for Tet.
Why?
Flowers will grow.
Oh.

I felt like the 2-year old who has just learned the power of the question "why?"

Still a bit confused, I asked someone else the next day. Mr. Chinh said that flowers would grow...and he was right! On the tree outside our room, where once bunches of luscious green leaves once grew, little tiny yellow flowers are coming in! Hmm.