What Are Vietnamese Customs and Traditions? Definition, Origins, and Representative Practices
Vietnamese customs and traditions are habits and rituals passed down through generations. Here is their definition, origins, and key Tet practices.
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Vietnamese customs and traditions are habits and rituals passed down through generations. Here is their definition, origins, and key Tet practices.
The name "Tết Nguyên Đán" comes from "Tiết," a marker in the agricultural calendar, and "Nguyên Đán," meaning the first morning of the new year.
Vietnamese Lunar New Year customs: the Kitchen Gods send-off, New Year's Eve rites, first-footing, and lucky money, with the meaning behind each.
How Lunar New Year among the Hoa of Chợ Lớn differs from Vietnamese Tết: Kitchen God send-off, offerings, bánh tổ, assembly halls, visiting order.
Rằm Tháng Giêng, the lunar year's first full moon, brings temple visits and star-releasing rites, with the saying "a year of offerings cannot match this one.
Tet rites in southern Vietnam: welcoming the ancestors on the 30th, giao thừa offerings outdoors and indoors, Tết nhà on the third, farewell on the fourth.
The rite on the afternoon of the 30th of Tet invites ancestors home for the New Year. North, Central and South differ mainly in the feast and the fruit tray.
Northern Vietnamese Tet worship runs from seeing off the Kitchen Gods on the 23rd of the 12th lunar month to welcoming ancestors and the vang ma burning rite.
Burning votive paper to see off ancestors after Tet usually falls between the 3rd and 10th of the first lunar month, most often the 3rd. What to prepare.
The custom of offering a day early is called lễ tiên thường, with the main chính kỵ the next day. Its origin, distinctions and meaning.
The number of altars and incense bowls in a home is not fixed. This analysis draws on Gia lễ giản yếu and ethnographic records, with layouts for each case.
Combining death anniversaries into one day is a practical choice for families whose children work far away. Here is what is reasonable and what to watch for.
Phong tục in English is custom, tập quán is usage, and truyền thống is tradition. See how the three differ, plus a vocabulary table of Vietnamese customs.
Which peoples in Vietnam keep their own New Year apart from Tết Nguyên Đán? The Mông, Hà Nhì, Khmer, Chăm and others, as reported in the press.
A guide to preparing New Year's Eve offerings, arranging the outdoor and indoor trays by Vietnamese custom, with safety notes and regional differences.
Tet customs of the Dao Quan Chet people in Phu Tho include making chung and day cakes, ancestor worship, and community rituals that mark the new year.
Tet customs in Northern, Central, and Southern Vietnam share roots but differ in dishes and rituals, from banh chung to bitter melon soup.
Comparing Lunar New Year of the Kinh, Chol Chnam Thmay of the Khmer, and ethnic groups with their own calendars: timing, offerings, rituals, and names.
Though united as one Kinh ethnic culture, ancestor-worship, wedding, and Tết customs differ substantially across North, Central, and South Vietnam.
Vietnam's year of festivals and Tet occasions, from Lunar New Year and the first full moon to Mid-Autumn, plus ethnic Tet traditions.
Chol Chnam Thmay is the Khmer New Year, held in mid-April over three days with rituals like the Maha Sangkran procession and bathing the Buddha.
In Việt Nam phong tục, tế ngu counts from burial: sơ ngu on the burial day, tam ngu on the third. The 49th, 100th day and first anniversary count from death.
Explore traditional Vietnamese Tet taboos: avoiding sweeping, giving fire, breaking things... and the spiritual meanings behind these customs.
The Si La people in Lai Châu celebrate Tet early, timing it to the harvest and peach blossoms, with black pig rituals and double chung cakes.
The first outing and calligraphy of the new year are Vietnamese luck-bringing customs. See how times and directions are chosen by lunar calendar and deities.
Vietnamese Tet customs from day 1 to 7: first-footing, New Year greetings, votive paper burning and khai hạ, with their meanings and regional differences.
Duck, squid, banana, shrimp, snail and fertilized duck eggs are avoided at new year in Vietnamese folk belief, which links them to bad luck.
The grave-opening ceremony about three days after burial in southern Vietnam: the offerings, the folk meaning of chick, ladder and sugarcane, a Buddhist view.
Where Tet couplets come from, where Vietnamese families pasted them (door, pillars, ancestor altar), and the basic rules of parallelism for writing one.
Thanh Minh is when descendants clean ancestral graves and offer rituals. This guide covers offerings, step-by-step procedures, prayers, and safety notes.
Chicken feet divination at Tet and the new rice ceremony of ethnic minorities aims to predict fate and crops for the new year.
Mid-Autumn Festival customs differ across Northern, Central, and Southern Vietnam, from northern rituals to lively Central festivals and Southern gift-giving.
Northern and Central Vietnam stress ancestral offerings and the pest-killing ritual on Doan Ngo, while the South keeps things simpler.
Tết in Huế runs from the twelfth lunar month to the seventh of the first: the Thướng tiêu rite, đạp đất, vegetarian offerings and many cakes and preserves.
The Neu pole is raised on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month and lowered on the 7th of the first month, closing Tet. Its origins, meaning.
The Vietnamese saying about the first three days of Tet: day one for the father's side, day two for the mother's side, day three for one's teachers.
Tay weddings move through proposal, engagement, Tet visit and the wedding, with the matrilocal custom of a bride staying with her mother until pregnancy.
Tết markets in the North, Centre and South: what the year-end markets sell and why people go, from old accounts and present-day reports.
What was Tet like in Vietnam's subsidy era? Ration coupons, the Tet food bag, pre-dawn queues and shared bánh chưng pots, as remembered in the press.
Giỗ thường (cát kỵ) yearly rites need no full feast like giỗ đầu or giỗ hết. Core offerings: hương đèn, trầu cau, rượu trà, a bowl of upside-down rice.
Giỗ đầu (tiểu tường) is the first death anniversary, with a tray of cơm úp, boiled egg, chicken, xôi and vàng mã, more solemn than an ordinary giỗ.
The 15th day of the 7th lunar month has three offering trays: a vegetarian tray for Buddha, a full tray for ancestors, and one for wandering souls.
A guide to the Vietnamese housewarming ritual (nhập trạch): the offerings and each step in order, from the auspicious date to moving in.
The giỗ prayer text: its structure, how to address each generation of ancestors, and the tiên thường and chính kỵ versions, with sources.
How to prepare the offering tray and perform the Kitchen Gods' ritual on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, following regional customs.
The Tep Temple festival for Trung Tuc Vuong Le Lai in Kien Tho commune, Thanh Hoa falls on the 21st of the 8th lunar month and the 8th of the 1st lunar month.
New Year Tarot spreads include 12-month layouts and themed spreads, with meanings for each position and a reflective, non-superstitious approach.
The Le Chan Female General Festival in Hai Phong honors the founder of An Bien village with rituals each second lunar month.
Feng Shui is a traditional body of knowledge about arranging living spaces in harmony with landscape and energy flow, based on yin-yang and the five elements.
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