“Chúc mừng năm mới.” 

This is the standard way of saying "Happy New Year" in Vietnamese.

Tet Nguyen Dan, shortened to Tet, is the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. It falls on February 1st this year, and Vietnamese people enjoy a 5-day national public holiday from January 31st(Tet Eve) to February 4th, 2022.

Lunar New Year (Spring Festival) is typically celebrated in Asian countries and begins with the first new moon of the lunar calendar and ends on the first full moon 15 days later. The lunar calendar is based on the cycles of the moon, so the dates of the holiday vary slightly from year to year, beginning sometime between January 21 and February 20 according to Western calendars.

In 2010, when I visited Vietnam, Lunar new Year was on February 14. Since I arrived on January 11 and departed on February 9, I only got to see the preparations, but they were impressive and colorful.

Like this year, it was the Year of the Tiger, and Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) had lots of red and yellow decorations with tigers on them. (Each lunar year is represented by one of the twelve zodiac spirit animals, the rat, buffalo, tiger, cat, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. The animal of your birth year is said to influence your personality traits.)

 About a week before the holiday that year, New Year displays appeared throughout the city. Le Loi, one of the main streets, was alight with hanging lanterns and strings of lights, and everywhere you could see hawkers selling Year of the Tiger cards, decorations, and lai see (red money envelopes which elders hand out to children for good luck in exchange for Tết greetings).

The park across from our hotel became filled with tree lots. (They were similar to our Christmas tree lots but without the evergreens.) There was an abundance of what looked like cherry blossom trees for sale. Others that were shaped like Christmas trees were actually plum trees, and the branches were absolutely filled with small plums. There were also fanciful plum topiaries in animal shapes, and photographers were available to take photos of kids standing next to them. Other trees had a bonsai shape and were filled with the same tiny yellow flowers used in the holiday decorations. Lots of orchid plants were also for sale, and fake trees made from dyed pussy willow branches were popular too.

The crowds swelled as the holiday approached. The streets, which were normally busy at night, were now teeming with motorbikes and pedestrians. It was even hard to walk amongst the evening market stalls because of the cruising motorbikes.

One day we came upon a colorful dragon dance in the street. Dancers were hidden under the guise of what is known as the Mua Lan. The Lan, an animal between a lion and a dragon and the symbol of strength in the Vietnamese culture, is used to scare away evil spirits.

 The origins of the Lunar New Year Festival are thousands of years old and are steeped in legends. One legend is that of Nian, a hideous beast believed to feast on human flesh on New Year’s day. Because Nian feared the color red, loud noises, and fire, red paper decorations are pasted to doors, lanterns are burned all night, and firecrackers are lit to frighten the beast away.

Visiting Vietnam was an amazing experience for many reasons, but I felt most fortunate to be able to witness the color and joy of the country’s most important holiday.