Merry Christmas (NOEL NIGHT

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(01/29/2008)

Tết Nguyên Đán pronunciation (help·info), more commonly known by its shortened name Tết, is the most important and popular holiday and festival in Vietnam. It is the Vietnamese New Year which is based on the Chinese calendar, a lunisolar calendar. The name Tết Nguyên Đán is Sino-Vietnamese for Feast of the First Morning, derived from the Hán nôm characters 節元旦. In modern Chinese, the characters for Nguyên Ðán (元旦) have evolved to refer to New Year in the Gregorian calendar, that is, January 1.[1]

The first day of Tết for 2008 will be February 7, 2008.

Tết is celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year though exceptions arise due to the one-hour time difference between Hanoi and Beijing. It is celebrated from the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar (around late January or early February) until at least the third day. Tết shares many of the same customs of its Chinese counterpart. Many Vietnamese prepare for Tết by cooking special holiday foods and cleaning the house. On Tết, Vietnamese visit their families and temples, forgetting about the troubles of the past year and hoping for a better upcoming year. Tết traditionally marks the coming of Spring, so Spring (Xuân) is sometimes used interchangeably with Tết in Vietnamese. Nowadays, the term "Tet" in English is often associated with the bloody Tết Offensive, which occurred during Tết in 1968.

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Well south of Tet

(01/29/2008)

At home, Tet symbolises new beginnings and important observances for Vietnamese people. Overseas, small communities in out of the way places still celebrate, albeit somewhat less extravagantly.

Small expat communities around the world cling to their traditional celebrations be they religious observances, or the ritual of passage into a New Year.

Life in Vietnam is blessed with two New Year celebrations within a few short weeks, with western and eastern holidays providing for some serious time off work.

Tet, its exact date determined by the lunar calendar, usually falls within January or February, meaning foreigners in Vietnam must choose whether to stay home for extended Xmas holidays, or return to Vietnam to welcome the Lunar New Year with friends.

Overseas, communities of Vietnamese find Tet to be just as important, but often face the same confounding circumstances as foreigners looking to celebrate Xmas or New Year in Vietnam. The size of expat communities has a direct affect on their ability to procure the essentials for their festive celebrations. Christchurch in New Zealand is no exception.

According to one fish and chip shop owner, while larger parties are held in larger urban centres in the country, the community in the south of the country is too small, and therefore festivities are small themselves.

In another decade or so, he supposed, when the Vietnamese community is bigger, the celebrations would grow. When asked how big the community was here he replied "Your guess is as good as mine mate."