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General Assessment of Beliefs in Traditional Tet


2.2.3.6. Ask for the first words of spring.

Every year the peach blossoms bloom, I see the old scholar again, with his ink and red paper.

On the crowded street (Vu Dinh Lien)

The beginning of the year is often associated with praying for good omens and good deeds in people's wishes through pilgrimages to the most sacred places. Asking for calligraphy is one of those spiritual activities.

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This meaningful practice occurs in many places across the country. From North to South, from upstream to downstream, regardless of rich or poor, noble or humble... we often see similar faces in the sincerity of the person asking for calligraphy before the person giving calligraphy. In the past, it was Chinese characters, today it is still Chinese characters, and there are also Vietnamese characters. The teachers of Chinese and Vietnamese studies freely let their souls follow the strokes of the pen to give the person asking for their heart and talent, sent through the strokes and content of the calligraphy according to the wishes of the person asking for it. No one sells calligraphy, only people buy paper to ask for calligraphy. The person giving calligraphy still has fortune but it is more subtle. This seemingly unusual practice shows the elegance of the job. The teachers do not have to be busy and tied to prices and money to be calm and wholehearted in this sacred work of giving calligraphy.

The practice of asking for calligraphy at the beginning of the year has existed for a long time and is becoming more and more popular. It is becoming a beautiful custom of Vietnamese people every spring and Tet. In Hanoi, this takes place in many places: in the private homes of some teachers who are famous for their good writing and writing skills, on the streets where there are spacious sidewalks and many people passing by. The most impressive places are in front of the Temple of Literature, the sidewalk on Ba Trieu Street, the intersection with Tran Hung Dao Street... Asking for calligraphy is a beautiful cultural feature that needs to be promoted. Just one word hanging in front of you has a meaning about morality and life.

General Assessment of Beliefs in Traditional Tet


Living for real people is much more valuable than empty words.

2.3. General assessment of beliefs in traditional Tet

Tet for Vietnamese people is not only a simple festival but also an occasion to review the origin, to preserve the unique cultural imprints with a unique flavor. For every Vietnamese person, Tet is both sacred and close to the feelings of homeland and family. Tet is not only a normal cultural activity but also a system of rituals governed by customs, habits and beliefs. Beliefs in the traditional Tet of Vietnamese people have a profound influence on the subconscious as well as the awareness of every generation of Vietnamese. That influence has governed all human activities and left good consequences.

2.3.1. Advantages:

What is easy to see here is that the beliefs in Vietnamese Tet not only carry cultural, spiritual, and moral values ​​but also aesthetic values.

a/ Cultural values.

Tet is an important traditional cultural activity. During the year, all business and production activities are focused on preparing for Tet, playing in the Tet atmosphere and enjoying Tet.

Every year, when Tet comes, no matter what job they do or where they live, even those who live far away from home, they still wish to return to their family home for the 3 days of Tet, to pray before the ancestral altar, to look back at the church, the grave, the well, the yard... where they were born. "Returning home for Tet" is not a common concept of going or returning, but a pilgrimage to the origin, the land where one was born and raised.

If in the world today the phenomenon of "Closed Tet" has gradually become popular, in Vietnam, Tet is a reunion, a reunion is something that has been deeply ingrained.


in the lifestyle and thinking of each person. That is the "undeniable" traditional cultural value of the Vietnamese people.

For Vietnamese people, festivals are a unique cultural feature, expressing the desire for a happy and eternal life. However, every spring, even though they are immersed in the atmosphere of Tet, many Vietnamese people still do not forget to go to the temple to burn incense, praying for health, peace, luck and happiness. Therefore, the custom of going to the temple at the beginning of the year has become a beautiful cultural feature in all social classes.

Foreign visitors to Vietnam are easily confused and equate the Vietnamese Lunar New Year with other Eastern countries, especially the Chinese New Year. Referring to the deep origins from a historical perspective, in reality, there are many outstanding differences in that culture.

- The first difference to mention here is the banh chung (banh tet) and banh day. Unlike many Chinese people who only like to eat specialties on New Year's Eve and Tet, such as shark fin, Vietnamese people eat banh chung, ham, and bamboo shoot soup during Tet. Banh chung and banh day also represent the tradition of drinking water and remembering the source of the Vietnamese people, meaning that their origin is closely linked to the legend of the Hung Kings.

- The second difference is the time when Tet begins. If in China, the time of Tet is not fixed, constantly changing according to the concept of each dynasty (This proves that Tet Nguyen Dan in China does not completely depend on the season but depends on the subjective consciousness of each dynasty), then in Vietnam, the time when Tet Nguyen Dan begins is always spring, the beginning season of rebirth, the starting season of the crop, of the growth cycle of trees (Spring birth, Summer growth, Autumn fall, Winter storage)

- The third difference is December 23. It means "Dong Tang" which means the universe is temporarily suspended from December 23 of the lunar calendar. From this day to New Year's Eve is exactly 7 days, a number


sacred, a symbolic number that generalizes cosmology (Buddha was born and walked 7 steps, meaning he traveled around the world). And the Vietnamese people are deeply aware of that "Dong Tang" time, so they have the custom of buying carp to release, in addition to the common meaning of helping Mr. Tao return to heaven, there is another meaning of expressing the need for rebirth through the act of releasing animals. And Mr. Tao's means of transport is carp, not horse, which reminds us of the boat, the typical means of transport of ancient Southeast Asian people (Northern go horse, Southern go boat).

- The fourth difference is the Neu tree. The Neu tree is entirely a product of the Southern people. It is a variation of the immortal tree (it is shrunk and turned into a sugarcane tree, placed next to the ancestral altar, the Muong and Thai people still consider sugarcane an immortal tree) and the sun tree.

- The fifth difference is the Kitchen God. In China, the Kitchen God has only one person, a male god, called Tao Quan. In Vietnam, there is a whole Kitchen God family, the three of whom are generalized by the people as "The Three Gods in One". And the Kitchen God's function does not stop at protecting the kitchen but also protects, monitors and reports on all aspects of the homeowner's life. The Kitchen God is evidence of the feminine-oriented synthetic thinking in the cognitive field of the Vietnamese people.

- The sixth difference is the color of Tet. The color of Tet is influenced by Chinese culture, the main color is red, so Tet in Vietnam is filled with red. However, besides the main red color, there is the yellow color of apricot blossoms (a flower that people in Southern Vietnam love very much), and of kumquat trees. Therefore, we can only say that the color characteristics are just the cultural exchange of Tet between Vietnam and China.

- Another noticeable difference between Vietnamese and Chinese New Year is that Vietnamese people celebrate the Year of the Cat while Chinese people celebrate the Year of the Rabbit instead. This is the difference between the two cultures…


It can be said that the differences between Vietnam's Tet and that of other countries have contributed to forming distinct cultural values ​​that visitors can only feel when coming to Vietnam.

b/ Spiritual value

Behind the customs and beliefs during Tet always lie good spiritual values, not just material values. The pace of life today is much faster than before, the pace of human life is also faster. They face a lot of stress in work and in current relationships. Therefore, Tet is the time for them to slowly slow down and look back at what they have done throughout the year.

Of the ten annual Tet holidays of the Vietnamese, Tet Nguyen Dan is the most important, often called Tet Ca. Due to its special position, Tet Nguyen Dan has great spiritual significance for the Vietnamese. During Tet, people live with all their hearts filled with hope. People give each other the best things, they wish each other Phuc, Loc, Tho, Khang, Ninh, Van su cong y. The behavior during the three days of Tet is truly cultural behavior. Children and grandchildren show their respect.

, gratitude to grandparents, ancestors; sick children give Tet gifts to the doctor; students wish their teachers a happy new year; friends give Tet gifts to each other... the gifts are not worth much but the heart is full of immeasurable value. That Tet gift does not have material value but contains within it a simple yet precious spiritual value.

Lunar New Year is a common festival for all 54 ethnic groups as a matter of course. It is that simple spiritual value that unites our nation (unlike in Singapore, where Lunar New Year is considered to be exclusively for the Chinese. Singaporeans of Malay and Indian origin do not celebrate it or are not enthusiastic about it).

c/ Moral values

Beliefs during Tet have existed for thousands of years, behind which are hidden moral values ​​that make those beliefs increasingly preserved.


longer. For example, the basic belief of traditional Vietnamese rice farmers, strongly influenced by Confucianism, is ancestor worship. The custom of ancestor worship that still exists today is partly determined by the moral concept of the Vietnamese people: Tet is an occasion for descendants to remember their ancestors, ancestors, and grandparents who have contributed to opening hamlets and villages, who have contributed to passing on the blood and bones of their lineage... it is an occasion to show respect...

There is an old saying: “A greeting is more valuable than a feast”. A greeting on Tet holiday is much more valuable than a greeting on a normal day. It is sacred, warm, open and sincere, from the words of children and grandchildren respectfully wishing their grandparents and parents to the words of grandparents and parents wishing their children and grandchildren to study hard and be successful in their careers in the new year… From a sentence to a sitting position, a standing position, a way of raising a cup to the hand holding chopsticks, it seems like an invisible miracle that shapes each person, helping them stay away from the hustle and bustle, and abandon the vulgarity and banter at train stations and markets every day.

Tet in Vietnam is not only an occasion for family members to reunite and for friends to visit each other, but it is also an occasion for each person to show their gratitude to their teachers. That is why Vietnamese people have a saying: "The first day of Tet is for fathers, the second day of Tet is for mothers, the third day of Tet is for teachers". That is the tradition of respecting teachers.

d/ Aesthetic value.

According to Professor Tran Quoc Vuong: “One of the strange powers of Tet is that it brings beauty to each person, making people feel joy, happiness, hope…” and with that same power, it seems that Tet also implicitly forces each person to beautify themselves, please others, bring hope to those around them, meaning they must also contribute their own beauty to the common beauty.

Welcoming the New Year, every family and every person enthusiastically cleans the family altar and house with the meaning of "sending out the old, welcoming the new" and prepares the most beautiful clothes to wear for the three days of Tet. Vietnamese people, regardless of gender, age or gender, on this occasion


want to wear the newest clothes. If in the matter of eating, our people believe: "Hungry all year round, full for three days of Tet", then in the matter of dressing, Vietnamese people also try to take care to stand out more than usual. Both to let the myriad of colors of silk fabrics dispel all the worries of the old year, and to start a new year with lots of luck. Vietnamese people always choose the most brilliant and brightest colors to wear on Tet, avoiding black and white which represent mourning. For centuries, Northern women have saved for Tet the four-panel dress, the peach-colored bib, the crow-beak scarf and the conical hat. By the end of the 20th century, the traditional Tet costume had the appearance of the ao dai. In the past, the ao dai for both men and women were sewn in pairs and wore a white lining dress inside the dress (so it was often called the ao mo ba). The Ao Dai with shiny silk material with bright, vibrant colors such as blue, yellow, red, purple, makes the spring atmosphere more passionate and fresh. This outfit seems to be the perfect combination between the aesthetic taste of Vietnamese people in Ao Dai with the concept of Yin and Yang and the Five Elements originating from Chinese culture. Now, with the pace of modern life and the introduction of countless world fashion styles, the Ao Tu Than and the traditional Ao Dai are gradually fading into the past, but the need for aesthetics is still an indispensable need during Tet.

The custom of displaying peach blossoms and apricot blossoms during Tet not only has the meaning of beautifying the house during Tet, but also symbolizes the use of beauty and goodness to ward off bad and evil things. Besides peach blossoms and apricot blossoms, to decorate for Tet with more atmosphere, people often paste red paper and decorate things with red tones to represent new vitality because red is the color of blood, the color of life and rebirth according to the original concept and is preserved in Eastern culture.

On Tet holiday, whether in urban or rural areas, rich or poor, the Tet feast is indispensable. The feast is always presented in a way that is both beautiful with bright colors and implies the good wishes of the family.


owner. The tray of five fruits on Tet holiday, if based on the colors in Eastern philosophy, the tray of five fruits must have 5 types of fruits with 5 different colors... Because there are more and more fruits, all of which are delicious and nutritious, to best express filial piety to ancestors, and at the same time to express the artistic presentation in the eyes of the unique aesthetic eyes of the people, the tray of five fruits is becoming more and more diverse, and people are no longer strictly bound by the rule that it must be "five fruits" but can be eight, nine, or ten fruits.

Beauty is not only expressed in the new clothes, the color of flowers on Tet, the typical red color of Tet, the Tet feast but also expressed in the handwriting of the "calligrapher". Red and black are two typical colors of calligraphy. Particularly, calligraphy on Tet has the addition of yellow because of the concept of luck at the beginning of the year. If the calligrapher in the past used to freely draw his brush strokes on bamboo blinds and wind paper, today, the strokes are drawn on materials such as wood, stone, and fabric. Each color and material brings emotions and passion to the writer as well as the audience.

2.3.2. Existence:

Besides healthy activities, improving spiritual and cultural life

– In terms of beliefs, Vietnamese Tet is facing problems that need to be overcome soon. For example:

- Burning votive paper is a ritual based on the long-standing ancestor worship of the Vietnamese people, a spiritual expression to see that people in the "other world" live close to the real world. Votive paper is considered a concept of human life, of the philosophy of drinking water and remembering its source, of the soul, of the spiritual world. However, how to properly burn votive paper is a question that needs to be answered. In many places, burning votive paper is being done excessively because people believe that the more offerings they make, the more they will be blessed by the gods or the dead. In fact, this is just a "show off" to the living, more than that, it is to satisfy the habit of "chickens crowing at each other", leading to

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