Every Tet holiday comes when people and families are busy shopping for Tet, in which beautiful costumes are always the first priority items to buy. Everyone wants to have a beautiful outfit that stands out to go out on Tet. Not only that, On the first day of the year, wearing age-appropriate items according to old people’s conception makes a year more fortunate. So today we will help you choose the right clothes to wear on Tet Vietnam.

As well as the proverb “Pray for holiness. Be patient for good”. According to Vietnamese beliefs, on the first day of spring, we should wear clothes with colors that match our age. Choosing a color for a shirt/cloth to wear on the first day of the new year helps people avoid bad luck and get lucky for the new year. So to better suit feng shui (geomancy) as well as have luck for the whole year, it is also important to wear colors that match your age on the first day of the year. So, what color shirt/cloth should you wear on the 1st of the year 2024 so that can help 12 zodiacs can get lucky in business and life, let’s check the picture below.

As for costumes, Tet is a Vietnamese traditional holiday, so this is also an opportunity for people to wear traditional Vietnamese costumes, namely Ao Dai. Ao Dai is a kind of innovative outfit that was changed and stylized from the five-body shirt (Áo ngũ Thân) (with a stand-up shape, or standing neck) of the Westernization period, also known as the New period. Usually, the ao dai will be for both men and women, but it is more popular with women. With the development and changes, Vietnam Ao Dai also has many different shapes.

1. Traditional Ao Dai (Áo Dài truyền thống): Traditional ao dai usually has to be tailored to the size of each person, Vietnamese people will buy fabric and bring it to a professional Ao Dai tailor to sew according to their size.

However, Due to the growth and today’s demand, there are also many brands and shops that also have ready-to-wear Ao Dai.

2. Innovative Ao Dai (Áo Dài Cách Tân): Most women think that the traditional ao dai is too long and cumbersome to function every day, especially at work that has to move a lot and constantly. Along with that, the weather in Vietnam is quite hot, so the traditional ao dai costume is no longer suitable to become ordinary clothes like in the past. That is why the modern innovative ao dai came into existence.
In addition, for girls whose body is not very balanced, wearing traditional ao dai on important occasions is not easy. Others can always have difficulty, having problems with the design of the shoulder and waist buttons that are easy to open, which is inconvenient for the wearer.
Understanding these things, changing the ao dai to suit the new and modern lifestyle is extremely necessary. “Innovating” ao dai is also the goal of bringing attractive and beautiful outfits; while creating more convenience and comfort for the wearer. And of course, these factors have met the needs of Vietnamese women and have gradually become the Ao Dai designs of the new era, easy to buy, easy to wear, and easy to use.

Ao Dai Vietnam also has models for men and children

Here is some address that you can buy Áo Dài for you and your family:

Tet decoration is one of the most important Vietnamese customs. Decorate homes on Tet holiday to dispel bad things and welcome new fortune into the house. Not only that, Tet is usually an occasion when many guests come to the house and give New Year wishes, the house cannot be messy to welcome guests. Being praised by the guests coming to the house on the occasion of the new year, those are also the “golden” words that help the homeowner believe that this year he will meet more joy and luck.

Vietnam people use to said, “Tết Đến Xuân Về” (Tết Come, Spring return), therefore, Tet is an occasion to mark the return of spring – the season of sprouting tree and blooming flowers. So that, during such happy days, everyone wants to decorate the house with all kinds of plants and flowers. Tet flowers are endless with all kinds of flowers such as Gladiolus, marigold, chrysanthemum, persimmon … but typical plants and flowers are only encapsulated in two things: Northern Peach and Southern Yellow Apricot. It is because the Peach blossom loves cold weather and can only live in the north and the apricot blossoms like the warm sun of the south.

For the Northern people, when referring to Tet, people will immediately think of peach blossoms – flowers only bloom in the spring, to serve the Lunar New Year. In the old days, in order to prevent the devil from disturbing life, people thought of a way to break peach branches and put them in jars. Accordingly, just seeing the peach branch, the demons will run away, not near the house anymore. In addition, peach blossoms are also a symbol of innovation, proliferation and strong development, it can bring a new source of vitality, helping everyone in the house to be healthy, peaceful and everything goes well in the New Year.

The North has peach blossoms, the South has apricot blossoms. The yellow colour of apricot blossom has long been considered a symbol of wealth. People display apricot flowers on the occasion of Tet with the wish of a new year of prosperity and wealth. According to the opinion of many people, the more petals blooming in a house, the luckier and more prosperous that the house is in the new year.  In the concept of the five elements, the yellow colour is Earth (earth), located in the centre, bringing together Kim, Moc, Thuy, Hoa (metal, wood, water, fire), representing the ability reproduction. The apricot blossom has 5 petals, representing 5 good things in life: happiness, luck, longevity, success and peace.

In addition to floral decorations, Vietnamese also decorate their homes for the New Year with fruits and other red and yellow decorations.

Therefore, in the house of Vietnamese people on Tet holidays, there is always an apricot tree or a peach tree and a Quat tree decorated with red envelopes as the belief and wish for a lucky, prosperous new year, happy, warm and full. In addition, the Vietnamese also decorate these flowers with red couplets, small lantern, New year greeting card or small fireworks to increase the red colour for the new year.

Dear Beluxcham Members,

Lunar New Year or Tết Nguyên Đán, is Vietnam’s most significant celebration. Across Vietnam, during this time families reunite and honour their ancestors, while praying for luck, prosperity and health in the new year. If you have been in Vietnam and have experienced Tet in Vietnam,  you will find that before Tet and in the days of Tet, Vietnam people have a lot of traditions are preserved and handed down to the present day.

So why have these practices and what is the story behind these practices? To help our members understand more about Vietnamese “Tết” holidays, starting today, we will bring you the 7-day Tet series, every day we will introduce practice and story behind it

Today is the day Vietnamese people send Mr Tao back to heaven. According to Vietnamese’s folk beliefs, Mr Tao or “Tao Quan” is derived from three gods: the God of Soil, the God of House and the God of Kitchen.  However, instead of calling the name of 3 Gods, Vietnamese people generally call them as “Tao Quan” (understood commonly as The God of Kitchen).  And on the 23rd day of the lunar calendar, Mr. Tao drive Golden carp back to heaven to report everything in the house of the owner to the Jade Emperor (emperor of the heavens), the Jade Emperor either rewards or punishes a family based on Mr. Tao’s yearly report. Until noon on the 30^th of December (Lunar Calendar) or the moment of New Year’s Eve, The Kitchen God returns every house to continue his job of looking after the stove in the kitchen.

Therefore, Mr. Cong – Mr Tao is the god that governs all activities of the owner, is the god that determines the luck and happiness of the whole family. Also, the God of Kitchen prevents the intrusion of ghosts and devils into residential land to keep the peace for everyone in the house.

The custom of worshipping Mr. Cong Mr. Tao is one of the cultural features of Tet holiday that has been preserved for many generations of the Vietnamese people. This is also the custom of expressing gratitude to the gods who have been taking care of the year-round to maintain family routines, and at the same time remind each person to be more responsible in caring for the family.

In these days, families in Vietnam will clean the kitchen, buy goldfish to worship and see Mr. Cong and Mr. Tao back to heaven.

It is believed that Mr. Cong – Mr. Tao represents three clay cubes used to place the pot on the old stove, two of which are smaller than the other. This is considered the influence of the custom of worshipping fire god, a long-standing custom.

Furthermore, In Vietnam, the legend of “The God of Kitchen” has been orally transmitted and recorded as follows:

Once for a while, there was a very poor family. The husband’s name was Trong Cao and the wife’s name was Thi Nhi. Despite getting married to each other for such a long time, they had no children, which led to their frequent quarrels every day.

One day, Trong Cao was so angry with his wife that he hit her. Being so angry, Thi Nhi left her house and met a man called “Pham Lang” who soon attracted Thi Nhi by his honeyed words. Then, Pham Lang and Thi Nhi set up house together. When Trong Cao was no longer angry with Thi Nhi, he immediately looked for his wife everywhere. However, his wife was found nowhere. Being so disappointed, he gave up his job and went everywhere as a mendicant to seek for his wife.

One day, Trong Cao went to a prosperous household and begged for foods, and the mistress of the house brought some cooked rice to the door to give him. Accidentally, two people recognized each other. Falling under Pham Lang’s suspicion, Thi Nhi was so ashamed that she rushed headlong into the burning fire to kill herself. Trong Cao was sympathetic towards his ex-wife, so he also rushed to the fire to die. Pham Lang also jumped into the fire to die together with his wife.

The God was so touched to see the love of Trong Cao, Thi Nhi and Pham Lang that he appointed three of them to be “Tao Quan” and assigned each person a job:

-Phạm Lang is “Tho Cong” (the God of Kitchen who looks after cooking job)

-Trọng Cao is “Tho Dia” (the God of Soil who takes care of family affairs)

-Thị Nhi is “Tho Ki” (the God who sees to the matters related to shopping in the market)