Tet Nguyen Dan (commonly "Tet") is Vietnam's largest traditional festival, marking the transition from the old lunar year to the new one. It typically runs from the 23rd of the 12th lunar month through the 7th day of the new year, filled with distinctive rituals.
On the 23rd of the 12th lunar month, families hold a ceremony to send off the three Kitchen Gods, believed to ride a carp back to heaven to report on the household to the Jade Emperor, often accompanied by releasing live carp and thoroughly cleaning the home and altar.
A year-end offering (usually the afternoon of the last day) invites ancestors to celebrate Tet with the living family; a New Year's Eve offering, held at the exact transition hour (11pm–1am), includes both an outdoor tray (to see off the old year's guardian spirit and welcome the new one) and an indoor tray.
The first person to enter the house after midnight is the "first-footer", folk belief holds that someone compatible in age/fate, cheerful, and prosperous brings good luck for the whole year, so families sometimes arrange for a suitable person to visit first.
In the early days of the new year, people visit grandparents, parents and relatives to wish them well; adults give children (and elders) lucky money in red envelopes (li xi), symbolizing wishes for luck and health rather than material value.
Vietnamese Tet customs include various taboos, avoiding sweeping the floor (believed to sweep away fortune), avoiding arguments or unlucky words, avoiding lending fire or water on the first day, avoiding all-white or all-black clothing (associated with mourning), these are regional folk beliefs, not strict rules.
