Lunar New Year - Cultural Identity of Vietnamese People

03/02/2025 09:02

(BNP) - Tet Nguyen Dan (also known as Lunar New Year or Traditional Tet) is Vietnam's most important festival, a day when people reunite with their relatives, return to their hometowns, and honor their ancestors. Tet is celebrated in the spring, when a four-season cycle of Spring - Summer - Fall - Winter comes to an end, ushering in a new cycle, a fresh beginning, and is always filled with many hopes.


Seeing peach blossoms indicates that Tet is approaching.

The Lunar New Year is the largest of the Vietnamese people's traditional celebrations, and it has a significant meaning. It marks the end of the previous year and the beginning of a new year, as well as the cycle of the earth, sky, and all things. Furthermore, Lunar New Year is an opportunity to reconnect with one's roots; it is both a spiritual and emotional value for the Vietnamese people, and it has become a good tradition.

The Lunar New Year is celebrated annually on the first day of the first lunar month. Tet holds a significant value for Vietnamese people. This is not only the transition from the old to the new year, but it also has great cultural and spiritual significance. According to Eastern beliefs, at this time, heaven and earth interact, allowing humanity to get closer to the gods.


People are eager to travel in spring and celebrate Tet.

Lunar New Year is also regarded as a "new beginning". It is the time when everyone looks forward to a prosperous and tranquil new year, putting away the ill luck of the previous year. As a result, during Tet, every family works hard to clean and decorate their homes, making them lovely and clean.

Aside from the sacred Tet practices, ancient Vietnamese people celebrated Tet and Spring with happy and healthy festival activities that displayed village affection, solidarity, and community cohesiveness, as well as the formation, cultivation, and preservation of village culture from generation to generation.


Sitting down to wrap Chung cake, chatting and recalling memories of the past year is an image easily seen in every family during Tet.

Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, has many special meanings. Beautiful customs during Tet represent cultural traditions and civilization that must be respected, preserved, and promoted by future generations, especially in this period of global integration, because it is the soul, the unique identity of the Vietnamese people.