Differences Between Vietnamese Lunar New Year and Western New Year

Do you know about Lunar New Year? If you love to learn more about Asian culture, just come to Vietnam in the Lunar New Year time, experience this typical event of Vietnamese and see how it is different from International New Year.

New Year Date

It is easy to see that the Lunar New Year and International New Year happen on different dates. While the first day of Western New Year is the 1^st of Jan for every year in International time. The 1^st of Jan of Lunar New Year is a different day in the International time each year, as it follows the Lunar Calendar which may be different each year and quite complicated to calculate.

Vietnamese Lunar New Year usually occurs around late January and early February. This year, the first day of Lunar New Year is on 5^th Feb 2019 according to the International calendar and at the moment, all Vietnamese are in hurry to prepare for their New Year holiday such as buying ornamental plants, decorations, foods, etc. With people who are working far from home, they hunt for tickets of bus, train, or airplane to travel back home, enjoy the most important annual event with their family.

2019 Lunar New Year - Year of The Pig

New Year Food

Every country has its own traditional foods for New Year Eve. Families in most Western countries normally will enjoy Year End party or have a hearty dinner with a menu which is more diverse and plentiful than normal. However, in Vietnam, people still keep the traditional meals which are so hearty from the final day of the old year and keep going on in at least 3 to 5 days after the New Year Eve; sometimes, people keep eating complicated meals like that until the middle of January in Lunar Calendar. The reason for this tradition might begin from the ancient belief of the Vietnamese. As a country develops from agriculture, people here believe that food is the most important thing in their life, only when you have enough food, then you can do other things and as you have been working hard throughout the year, you should not be hungry in the New Year.

Vietnamese New Year Meal

For more details: Vietnam Traditional Food for Tet Holiday (Lunar New Year)

New Year Tradition

In Western countries, normally, people will party on New Year Eve and spend time traveling or relaxing before coming back to work. Lunar New Year in Vietnam is the time for returning home, enjoy an entire long holiday for visiting relatives and old friends, going to temples and pagodas then wishing for a healthy, wealthy, and lucky new year.

With the children or at present, everyone who still are studying instead of working, Lunar New Year is their most favorite time in the year as they will be given lucky money. In the old-time, the lucky money is just a small amount of money, normally is pennies, putting in a tiny red envelope as a wish of luck; however, as the time flies, the living standard of Vietnamese is higher, the amount of money given as lucky money in Lunar New Year is much higher, especially in the North of Vietnam and the traditional red envelope is slowly changed into many different types of the envelope with diverse shape, size, and design.

Vietnamese Lucky Money

Read more about The Vietnamese’s Biggest Festival – Lunar New Year

MinKJ

(Image source: Internet)