A haphazard chronicle of my inevitable misadventures during a year in Vietnam and points east.

p.s. I'll be pitifully grateful if you send me email during my exile: TravelerKaty@hotmail.com

October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 February 2006 March 2006 May 2006

 
Yesterday was Tet, the Vietnamese lunar new year's day and the first day of the Year of the Goat.

Turns out that the goat is a bad animal and its year is considered unlucky by the Vietnamese and Chinese. Just ask the thousands of mothers-to-be that c-sectioned their impending children in order to ensure their Horse Year credentials. Do they think the moon isn't going to know they cheated?

And guess what? I am Year of the Goat! Yes, my parents cared so little for their child's ultimate prosperity, good health and happiness that they didn't even consult the lunar calendar for guidance. Wow, it's hard finding out after 35 years that one's parents entered that state so callously and without taking these critical planning steps. I'm going to have to go right into therapy when I get back to the states.

As you might have ascertained, the Vietnamese are very superstitious, and during Tet they let all their superstitious impulses run wild. For the whole lunar new year period, basically two weeks before and a week after Tet, dozens of tasks are done or avoided based less on religion than on what is perceived to be lucky or unlucky. Traditions are extremely strong, adn Vietnamese spend a fortune on decoration, gifts, food and travel.

Flower markets abound before Tet, as it is considered good luck to have an orange, kumquat, or flowering apricot tree in your house or store, and fresh flowers are mandatory as well. Vietnamese women clean everything in the house from top to bottom, and families start to arrive from all over the countries and the world. Thousands of "Viet Kieu", or overseas Vietnamese, flock into the country heaping hard-earned largess upon their families.

Many foods, including a strange mixture of fatty pork, bean paste and gelatinized rice packed into a square and wrapped in banana leaf (not too bad, actually), are required eating at Tet. For the three days immediately preceding the holiday families will make food offerrings to the gods, small portions of everything in little bowls placed on a makeshift altar with an accompanying ceremony and incense.

The day of Tet, February 1st this year, is extremely important in determining a family's fortunes for the following year. The first person to enter a house at the new year is the harbinger of good or bad luck for all its residents. Families beg their successful, married, good looking relatives with many children to make an early morning visit. The unemployed, ill, and unmarried women past their prime are encouraged to keep their distance. You can see how it would be problematic for me to have stayed in Saigon -- am I good luck because I'm a foreigner? Bad luck because I'm not married and broke my arm last year? Way to complicated for me to figure out, and I wouldn't want to ruin someone's whole year.

Tet is especially beloved by children, who face little of the work and anxiety and are given plenty of (mostly) unsolicited cash money.Li xi, or "lucky money", is passed out like candy in little red envelopes to all children in your family or with whom you have any sort of friendly or business relationship. The money must be unused, so there is quite a run on the banks around this time with thousands of people requesting crisp, new bills.

As for me, I spent Tet fairly quietly, hanging out and wandering around Hoi An with Tiffany, a Saigon friend and colleague who was takeing a sanity break from visiting her Vietnamese relatives in Danang for the week. So I got through Tet without having to figure out who I had to give li xi to -- quite a victory.

© 2003 Katy Warren


posted by Katy at 12:17 AM