[The 7-day Tet series] Day 4 – “Du Xuân” Let’s go spring travel!!

Spring is not only the most beautiful season but also the season of the festival, imbued with Vietnamese cultural identity. From past to present, Vietnamese New Year always has good customs on Tet such as picking fortune, travelling spring … Moreover, It is believed that the first director you go on the first day of the year is also very important, this direction will affect the person’s future in the coming year. People often look at books, learn folk experiences, and then look at calendar books to choose a departure direction for them to have the best luck and convenience in the new year.

These practices are very meaningful and bring peace, happiness and luck in the new year. Let’s find out where Vietnamese people usually go this time of the year.

1.Flower Market

As the cycle of creation, the spring begins a new year with these proliferating creatures… Ever since the spring flower market has become a familiar springtime destination for everyone at the end of the year. It seems that the flower market has become an indispensable tradition in the Tet holiday. People go to the flower market not only to choose a peach branch, apricot pot, but also a chance to find moments of relaxation in the soul, hoping for warm, happy spring and welcoming the new year together.

Here are addresses of some flower markets that you can visit now

Hanoi:

  • Van Phuc flower market: Van Phuc Street, Van Phuc, Ha Dong, Hanoi
  • Tay Tuu flower market: Tay Luu, Tu Liem, Hanoi
  • Quang An flower market: 236 Au Co, Quang An, Tay Ho, Hanoi

For more address of Flower market in Hanoi, click here

Ho Chi Minh:

  • Gia Dinh Park: Hoang Minh Giam, Go Vap District, Ho Chi Minh City
  • 23/9 Park Flower Market: Le Lai Street, Pham Ngu Lao, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City
  • Ben Binh Dong Flower Market: Ta Quang Buu Street, Ward 14, District 8, Ho Chi Minh City

For more address of Flower market in Ho Chi Minh, click here

2. “Đi chùa hái lộc” – Go to the temple to pick buds

In the mind of Vietnamese people for many generations now, Tet not only has the meaning of seeing off the old year, welcoming the new year but also bearing spiritual and religious features. In addition to the custom of worshipping the ancestors, people often look to temples and pagodas to pray for blessings and luck for their families with wishing for the best in the new year.

At the time of New Year’s Eve or the first day of the New Year, people go to the temple to pick up a branch of young buds to bring home, wishing to be blessed by the divine and holy Buddha with fortune and good luck throughout the year.

These are very small buds on the trunks with strong vitality such as si, fig, banyan … They bring them, hang them on the porch or plugin a vase, there are places still hanging in the middle of the door to eliminate the devil, or intended to announce that he had brought blessings home. According to researchers on national culture, Picking buds is a beautiful cultural feature of the Vietnamese people, in the moment of harmony between heaven and earth, picking the buds home is what many people like, it is the concept of wanting to bring good things, dispelling the unlucky things in the old year, hoping for good things to come in the new year …

Today, in the temples, to protect the trees in the temple and make it possible for everyone to pick the buds, people will replace the buds with small red envelope and hung on the branches.

Going to the temple ceremony at the beginning of the year is not simple to wish but it is also a time for people to find their spiritual place after hard-working days, looking for peace, getting rid of the sadness of the old year.

 

Posted in BeluxCham News, Useful information.

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