Tết

Đào Mai Linh

[Tiểu Sử | Thi Hữu | Nhắn Tin]

cùng tác giả

Tết

I remember celebrating Tet, Vietnamese New Year, when I was little. The celebration started a month before the actual holiday. It lasted for about a week. I always got so excited whenever Tet is coming. Tet meant getting new cloths and receiving for good luck from older people. Tet was also a perfect time to relax and spending time with family. A month before New Year, people started to sell special goods and flowers. I remember walking all around the patio at nighttime to look at the flowers. It was so beautiful! Before Tet, people began to renew their houses, started to organize things and bought new stuff. You can even feel the excitement in the air.
**
There were some most important things that everyone must have in order to celebrate New Year. These included: special yellow flowers that only blossomed in spring called Mai (which is my name ), some big, nice- looking watermelons and small, red envelopes to put money in to give children. The best part for us, little kids, were always the time when we received money for luck.
**
When I was a little girl, the noises of crackers on New Year’s Eve always woke me up with excitement. My mom changed new clothes for me and took me outside. Everyone stood in front of his/ her house to welcome the spirits back and the New Year’s angels, with the best smiles.
On the first day of Tet, people say nice things to the others. They wished each other the best of luck. Nobody should be sad or worry about anything for any reason ... Every Company and store closed for at least three days. The first day was family’s day. The second was for visiting relatives, and the third day was for friends. We believed that no one should go anywhere on the first day. It was bad luck if someone showed up at the other’s house. People stayed home and entertained for the whole day.
**
Tet was much more fun and meaningful when I was little. Now that we can no longer use the booms, New Year‘s Eve seemed awfully quiet. I felt like Tet had lost some of its meaning. Since I left Vietnam, I was not able to celebrate Tet like I used to. Who says things stay the same? No, they don’t. Everything changes as you grew up. You received more, but also lost more ...