TL;DR: The custom of buying salt at the start of the year and the custom of carrying water at the start of the year are both Vietnamese luck-bringing practices at Tet, tied to the wish for a new year of plenty, of close bonds and of smooth dealings in work. Salt stands for warmth of feeling, purity and good luck, while water stands for wealth and life. Today the salt-buying custom is still fairly widespread in many places, especially in the Northern Delta and in Nghe An province, while the water-carrying custom has faded, surviving only in a few midland areas of the North.
Title: What do the custom of buying salt at the start of the year and carrying water at the start of the year mean?
What are the customs of buying salt at the start of the year and carrying water at the start of the year?
The custom of buying salt at the start of the year is the habit of buying a small bag of salt on the morning of the first day of Tet, or right after the moment of giao thừa (the New Year's Eve transition), and bringing it home to bring good luck for the whole year. The custom of carrying water at the start of the year is the practice of a person with a "good fate" carrying water to fill the jars, vats and tanks of the household in the first days of the year, because the household believes that whoever brings water at the start of Spring also brings good fortune, helping business run smoothly[4].
Both of these customs belong to the group of Tet customs for seeking good luck, alongside many other practices such as hái lộc (picking a lucky bud), xông đất (the first visitor of the lunar new year) and mừng tuổi (giving lucky money). They reflect how Vietnamese people of the past thought about time and about the essential elements of life.
Why do Vietnamese people have the custom "buy salt at the start of the year, buy lime at the end of the year"?
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bùi Xuân Đính writes in the book Bách khoa thư làng Việt cổ truyền that the saying "buy salt at the start of the year, buy lime at the end of the year" was at first only meant to remind those going to the Tet market not to forget, not to buy too little of the things every household needs during the Tet days, and salt and lime were two such things. Later that reminder became a folk belief, and then was kept as a custom[1].
Dr. Đinh Đức Tiến, a lecturer in the Faculty of History at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University Hanoi, notes that every household uses salt all year round. People of the past believed this salty seasoning could remove filth, drive away evil spirits and bring good luck to the family. The saltiness of salt is also understood as warmth and closeness, the bond between the people in a household[1].
Dr. Lưu Huyền Trang, a lecturer in the Department of Vietnamese Cultural Foundations, Faculty of Propaganda, Academy of Journalism and Communication, sees in the custom "buy salt at the start of the year, buy lime at the end of the year" a profound philosophy of earlier Vietnamese people about human feeling and about time. She analyses it thus: salt is the image of warm, close, lasting affection, so buying salt at the start of the year is a prayer for family harmony and good relationships. Lime is the image of purification, renewal and building, so buying lime at the end of the year is for cleaning, repairing the house and closing off the old. According to her, earlier Vietnamese people thought of time as a circle: the moment of ending is the moment of purification, while rebirth goes together with the moment of beginning[1].
What does the custom of buying salt at the start of the year mean in folk consciousness?
Folk belief sees white salt grains as something carrying the yang quality, clean and pure. People believe salt removes filth, drives away evil spirits, turns bad luck into good for the household and brings more good fortune into the home right on the first day of the New Year[2].
Salt is also the image of good affection: the bond between husband and wife, the love of a couple, and family ties are described as salty and warm, deeply attached. So buying salt at the start of the year is a prayer for the family to always be full of flavour and closeness, and more broadly a prayer that relations with relatives, neighbours, friends and business partners all be good and favourable[2].
In terms of practical life, everyone's daily meal needs salt, and no one can live without it. Buying salt right at the start of the year therefore also carries the wish that food be plentiful all year and life be full and prosperous[2].
One detail worth noting is that the salt seller measures out the salt and piles it into a peak rather than levelling it off, implying that wealth and fortune will be full and abundant[2]. For people in the North, in daily life salt is important only after rice, so the bowl of salt bought at the start of the year is measured out full and heaped, not levelled off at the rim of the bowl[3].
Carrying water at the start of the year: a luck-seeking custom of farming people
Farmers of the past saw water as a matter of survival. Jars, vats, urns and basins filled with water in the first days of the year were therefore a sign of a prosperous year. The custom of carrying water to seek good luck was born from this, together with the saying "nhất nước, nhì phân, tam cần, tứ giống" (water first, manure second, diligence third, seed fourth)[4].
A special point is that the person carrying the water was usually someone from outside the family. On the first day of Tet, families hired a person with a "good fate" to carry water and gave them money as a reward at the start of the year. The household believed that whoever brought water at the start of Spring also brought good fortune, helping business run smoothly all year[4].
An article recounting the book Tiểu luận về dân Bắc Kỳ by the French scholar Gustave Dumoutier (1850-1904) says that around the end of the 19th century into the early 20th century, Hanoi had this practice: on the morning of the first day of Tet, a hired water carrier would carry two buckets of water to the house of a client to wish them a happy New Year, with the wish that the family have "money coming in like water". At that time, in the early 20th century, the city already had a water purification plant and public water taps supplying water to the streets, and the trade of carrying water for hire arose from there. Those in the trade used a carrying pole, two buckets per trip, carrying water to pour into each household's tank or jar for daily use[5].
On Tet days people were usually reluctant to visit each other's homes early for fear the household would "taboo" the age of the first visitor; but the hired water carrier did not have to worry about that taboo. Carrying two buckets of water there, they were welcomed by the householder with the greeting: "Happy New Year, may you be rich with money like water!", and each time they received a lucky money envelope stuffed with coins[5].
Later, when tap water became familiar in both city and countryside, the custom of carrying water to seek good luck gradually faded; today only a few midland areas in the North still keep it, as a rare cultural feature[4].
Buying salt at the start of the year in the coastal areas of Nghe An
For the coastal people of Nghe An, buying salt at the start of the year is not only about seeking good luck but also a way to remind each other of the past, of the salt-making trade that was once hard and impoverished[6].
In Nghe An, according to an article during Tet Bính Ngọ 2026, from the morning of the second to the third day of Tet, the roads in the communes of Diễn Châu, Hải Châu and Quỳnh Phú were bustling with the calls of itinerant salt sellers. Coastal people buy salt at the start of the year to pray for a new year of peace and good luck[6].
The salt sold is clean sea salt made by hand by salt-makers in Kim Liên and Tiền Tiến, two villages of the former Diễn Kim commune. Thanks to having been stored for many months, the salt grains are dry, naturally white, salty with the right flavour and not bitter. The sellers divide the salt into small bags, two types: a 10,000 dong pack and a 15,000 dong pack. Buyers at the start of Spring take only one or two packs because buying is to seek good luck, to pray for peace and for everything to go smoothly. Salt at the start of the year is sold only in the morning, on the two days of the second and third of Tet. A seller in Hải Châu commune said she sold nearly 200 small bags each day. No one haggles, and many customers even pay more than the price and do not take back the change[6].
A buyer in Diễn Châu commune said she puts the salt she has just bought in a porcelain bowl and keeps it in a corner of the kitchen; in the first lunar month she roasts it, grinds it fine and uses it gradually when cooking, in her daily kitchen work[6].
Salt is salty and has the ability to fight bacteria; from this, people believe sea salt drives away sorrow and misfortune, purifies filth and keeps life warm and peaceful[6].
How is the custom of buying salt at the start of the year practised?
People usually buy salt right from early on the first day of Tet. So on that morning, in the Northern Delta, itinerant salt sellers go through the streets and village lanes, and some set down a basket of salt to sell right in front of a pagoda gate. Almost everyone happily buys a few dong of salt to seek good luck for the whole year, and no one haggles. Salt sold on the first day of the year is called "muối lộc" (lucky salt)[3].
Many people are used to buying a small bag of salt and bringing it home to keep in the house, right after giao thừa or early on the morning of the first day of Tet. On the morning of the first day, itinerant salt baskets are present throughout the streets and in front of temple and pagoda gates, a scene that has become familiar, especially in the North[1].
In Nghe An, in front of and around places of worship such as đền Cờn, đền Cuông, đền Cả, đền Nẻ, đền Bạch Mã and chùa Cổ Am, many small bags of salt are also laid out, tied up neatly and carefully, so that locals and visitors on pilgrimage or sightseeing can buy them easily[6].
Other explanations of the custom "buy lime at the end of the year"
Besides the meaning of cleaning and whitewashing the house and gate to prepare for Tet, the custom "buy lime at the end of the year" has many other explanations.
According to the book Hội hè lễ Tết của người Việt by the scholar Nguyễn Văn Huyên, lime can ward off evil and stop ghosts and demons. People bought powdered lime and scattered it around the house to drive ghosts and demons out of the family's land, which also meant driving away the risks and bad luck of the old year[2].
Lime is also connected with the custom of erecting the cây nêu (Tet pole) at Tet. The old practice was to erect the Tet pole on the very day of worshipping ông Công ông Táo, the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, to drive away ghosts and demons and the misfortunes of the old year and to pray for a good New Year, national peace and prosperity, and good harvests. On the body of the pole were hung flags, banners, lanterns, parallel sentences, wind chimes and a clay pot containing lime. At its base, people scattered white powdered lime in a circle, or in the shape of a bow with an arrow pointing out towards the gate, to drive away evil spirits[2].
Earlier Vietnamese people also needed lime to chew betel. Without lime the betel quid is not red, not pungent, but bland, as the folk verse says: "Có trầu, có vỏ không vôi, có chăn có chiếu không người nằm chung" (There is betel, there is areca but no lime, there is a blanket and a mat but no one to lie with). The lime for chewing betel had to be slaked lime left for a long time. To have "a betel quid is the start of every conversation" to offer guests who come to wish a happy New Year, the household had to buy lime and add it to the lime pot before Tet[2].
The ông bình vôi is the pot holding lime for chewing betel, regarded as a sacred object in the home. Householders kept it very carefully and did not let the pot run low or out of lime, because a pot out of lime was like a house out of wealth. But because there is the idiom "bạc như vôi" (fickle as lime), people of the past avoided adding lime to the pot at the start of the New Year, so they had to make sure the lime pot was full before Tet[2].
Similarities and differences between the two customs
| Criterion | Custom of buying salt at the start of the year | Custom of carrying water at the start of the year |
|---|---|---|
| Time | Morning of the first day of Tet or after giao thừa; in Nghe An, the morning of the second and third days | Morning of the first day of Tet |
| Item | Salt (usually sea salt, in small bags) | Water (carried with a pole, two buckets) |
| Who does it | People in the household buy from itinerant salt sellers | A person with a "good fate", usually someone from outside the family |
| Main meaning | Seeking good luck, seeking wealth, strengthening affection | Seeking wealth, seeking good luck in business |
| Symbolism | Warmth, purity, driving away evil spirits | Life, wealth ("money coming in like water") |
| Current prevalence | Still seen in the Northern Delta and Nghe An | Has faded, remaining only in a few midland areas in the North |
Both customs share one point: they are tied to the most essential elements of agricultural life, salt and water. Through them, people of the past sent their wish for a new year of plenty and prosperity.
Is the custom of buying salt at the start of the year still common today?
The custom of buying salt at the start of the year is still fairly common today, especially in the Northern Delta and Nghe An province, the two places the sources describe. In Nghe An, this is a traditional cultural feature found in many localities and passed down through many generations. Besides the coastal communes of Quỳnh Phú, An Châu, Diễn Châu and Hải Châu, in lowland and mountainous communes such as Đô Lương, Yên Thành, Tân Châu, Hùng Châu, Vân Tụ and Giai Lạc it is also easy to come across people carrying salt by motorbike calling along village lanes and inter-commune roads, or laying salt out in baskets, flat trays and plastic containers at shops, market corners and roadsides[6].
Meanwhile, since tap water arrived, the custom of carrying water to seek good luck has faded, and today only a few midland areas in the North still keep it[4].
