Tet holiday in Vietnam - What to expect

I was lucky enough to visit Vietnam during the famous Tet celebrations.
Honestly, due to all the hustle and bustle with settling in, I didn't even realise in the beginning that the Tet was about to start until I began paying attention to the small changes around me.
Like, the increase of prices in some restaurants and cafes, the abundance of flower vendors on the streets, and the many tourists that were starting to fill up the town.


What is TET you might ask? Well, TET is short for Tết Nguyên Đán (節元旦), which is Sino-Vietnamese for "Feast of the First Morning of the First Day".
So basically it is the Vietnamese New year or as some may call it ''Lunar New year''.
Vietnam follows the Chinese calendar, as well as Korea, Laos, Singapore and many other Asian countries.
The Lunar New Year starts on the first new moon of the lunar calendar and ends during the first full moon 15 days later.

It's one of the most important holidays of the year in Vietnam, where during the whole week of Tet, most shops and restaurants are closed, and local people leave to spend time with their
families and visiting the temples.

Tet takes place from the first day of the first month of the Lunar calendar (around late January or early February) until at least the third day.
It is a very festive time here, as people seem very happy and joyful.
A week or two before Tet, normally the Vietnamese would spend a lot of time cleaning their homes to ''rid of bad energy'' pay off debts and resolve any disputes that they may have had.

 During this time, the Vietnamese also use many kinds of flowers and plants to decorate their home in this special period.
Walking through the streets of Da Nang, I saw many types of street flower shops selling Chrysanths, marigold, Mao Ga flower, paperwhite flower, lavender, to name a few as well as the 3 most important ones: peach flower, Ochna integerrima and marumi kumquat.

In Vietnam, thousands gather on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City to watch a fireworks show. Many Vietnamese celebrate Tet with a traditional food called banh chung, a square-shaped cake of sticky rice filled with meat and beans that is wrapped in green leaves.

Contrary to popular belief, that it's not a great time for visitors to come to Vietnam during the Tet, I disagree,
I think that it is a great time to visit.
The country is in a very festive mood, and you will really get to experience an interesting part of the culture, which I think is so important while travelling.

It's true that many places are closed and that it might be difficult to arrange transport, but there are many restaurants that are open for business even if the prices are a little bit higher than usual.
And as for transport, it's a great idea to hire a scooter for a couple of days, it's inexpensive and easily available.
If scooters are not your cup of tea, use this time to explore the city you are staying in, join in the celebrations and try to really understand the meaning of Tet.

If you are interested in reading more about how Tet is celebrated in Asia, I recommend that you check out this post by Tripsavvy.

Happy Chinese New Year ''2019'' Year of the pig. 🐷