Every year, nations from Asia such as China, South Korea and Vietnam — just to name a few — celebrate the Lunar New Year, which is based on the lunisolar calendar and marks the beginning of a new year based on the cycles of the moon. Though the Lunar New Year is a holiday shared across several countries, the way it is celebrated varies from nation to nation.
In an interview with The Wolf, senior Steven Tran shared how he celebrated the Lunar New Year with his Vietnamese family.
Did you celebrate the Lunar New Year this year?
I celebrated this Lunar New Year with my family. Since I’m Vietnamese, we call it Tết, but it’s essentially the same thing. How it goes for our family is we do some of the customs associated with Tết. We can’t do all of them due to not being in Vietnam with the rest of our family.
What are some of the traditions you and your family observed during the Lunar New Year?
Every year, we prepare by cooking holiday dishes, cleaning and decorating the house. These holiday dishes are offerings to our ancestors and grandparents at the family altar, but we still get to eat them afterward. My favorite dish is Bánh chưng, which is like a sticky rice cake with pork and mung bean paste.
Can you walk us through how your family prepared for the Lunar New Year’s Day?
At 12:00 a.m., going into Lunar New Year’s Day, our family sets up a specific altar that we pray to for good luck, health, wealth and whatever else we want. After that, our family burns paper, which is like a transaction between us, the living and the dead. Our ancestors in the afterlife then receive the burned paper in the form of a gift or currency. The best part comes either in the morning of or the day after the Lunar New Year. Red envelopes are a staple of the celebration, and we always receive ours on that morning or the following day.
For Tran, this holiday was a special time to celebrate his family’s roots and keep their culture alive year after year. As families continue to celebrate, the spirit of this cultural holiday lives on.
