03 February 2009

The Vietnamese Lunar New Year "Tet" Celebration at IPC Resident Hall

By Lan Huong Nguyen. Edited by Moira Blake.

The students celebrating the Lunar New Year or "Tet" in Vietnamese

For most New Zealanders, the most important family holiday every year is the Christmas holiday. For the Vietnamese people, it is the Lunar New Year, or Tet in Vietnamese, which usually falls during January or February of the calendar of Western countries.

The preparation for the New Year officially starts on the twenty-third day of the last month of the Lunar Calendar with the sending off of the household kitchen gods to heaven, in the hope that they will report to the king of heaven about all the good deeds that the people of the household have done (and only some of the bad deeds) so that heaven continues to give its blessing to the household in the new year. After that, male family members are in charge of cleaning the house and female members are in charge of food preparation. At midnight on the last day of the Lunar Calendar there is a ceremony to welcome in the New Year. On the first day of the New Year, people first go to a temple to pray for health, luck, and prosperity for their families. New Year lunch is often held at the home of grandparents so that all members of the extended family can gather.

Tet Ky Suu (Welcoming The Year Of The Ox) In New Zealand

In 2009, the first day of the Lunar New Year of the Ox fell on Monday 26th January. Every year, all the Vietnamese students and staff members who have stayed on in New Zealand for the summer term get together and hold their own Tet celebration, mostly consisting of cooking and eating a great amount of delicious food!

The Tet dinner this year was held on the night of Sunday 25th January, but the preparation started the Tuesday before, with a meeting to allocate tasks so that everybody would contribute to the big day. The cooking started on Saturday morning, with the making of the traditional new year dish: banh chung. The main ingredients for making banh chung are sticky rice, mung beans, and pork. In the north, banh chung is often square, whereas in the south, it takes on a different name - banh tet, as well as a different shape - cylindrical. Our head chef Thuy Linh is from the North, so this year we made square banh chung. The whole process takes two full days including one sleepless night, therefore even in Viet Nam, more and more families are choosing not to make their own, opting for buying ready-made ones from a supermarket instead. As a result, most of us never had the chance to learn how to make one when we were still at home, and it's really amazing that we are learning how to make our own traditional dish in a foreign country. By Sunday lunchtime, we had 33 banh chung ready, and when the dinner started, we were so pleased with ourselves as they tasted just like the ones from home.

Lucky money in red envelopes

We made six other dishes, which were a combination of traditional dishes for New Year and yummy dishes that are good for all seasons. Everybody contributed to the preparation, and the noise level over at Hall 10 kitchen often reached the IPC limit! Nevertheless, it helped us to become closer to each other and understand more about each other's families and friends as we exchanged stories over the kitchen bench. When I am at home, I personally enjoy this particular part of Tet the most, as family members spend more time together and can catch up with each other. For those who have travelled far from home for work or study, this time is even more meaningful. By 7pm on Sunday, all the food was cooked, all the decorations were up, and everybody had changed into their best clothes. After a short speech to welcome close friends who came to join us for the occasion, everybody was more than happy to attack the two tables full of delicious dishes. By 7:30 half of the food was gone, which was a very good indication of how great it was, and we were very proud of ourselves.

After everybody had had the chance to fill their plates at least twice, we (reluctantly) put down our plates and started a game that we prepared specially for this occasion. It is a tradition at Tet that children receive lucky money in a red envelope from parents and grandparents. While many of us can't really pass as "children" any more, luck is something that everyone needs, so we modified this tradition a little bit, and decided to hang up red envelopes on the ceiling, and each individual would have a chance to grab one - after others spun them around with their eyes closed. There were different amounts of money in the envelopes, the highest amount being NZ$5 and the smallest 20 cents. Inside each envelope, we also put a small greeting for the person for the new year. While you shouldn't spend your lucky money, who wouldn't want that 5-dollar note? The game took us about two hours with many hilarious moments, and made us all hungry again! Those who had to work on Monday morning had to excuse themselves, while the rest attacked the remaining food, and then sang New Year songs through the night. Many stayed up until 6am so that they could make a call home to wish their family a happy new year.

Overall, it was a fun, delicious, home-made occasion that all the Vietnamese students and staff members are very very proud of!

Year of the Ox, we welcome you! May you bring us health, luck, success, and prosperity!

Students creating the "Hoa mai" decoration for Tet

Final food preparation for the day

Everybody was more than happy to attack the two tables full of delicious dishes

<Back  |  ^Top