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THE SAME CELEBRATION
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Koreans and Vietnamese also celebrate their New Year according to the Chinese calendar. The
Japanese follow the lunar calendar, but their celebration falls on Jan 1 and 3 and is known as
Shogatsu.
The Korean Lunar New Year is called Seol, while the first day of the New Year is called Seol-ral
On New Year's Eve, people place rakes or sieves on their doors and walls to protect their families from evil spirits in the coming year. On this night, nobody is supposed to sleep. It is believed that if people slept on that night, their eyebrows would turn white!
Lights are also turned on in all parts of the house to receive the brand new year's day with open eyes and brightness. People also burn bamboo sticks to cast off house demons.
To symbolise a new beginning, everyone wears new clothes on New Year's Day and usually gathers at the home of the eldest male family member. Then ancestral memorial rites are held and the younger generation would bow deeply to their elders, wishing them good health and prosperity in the coming year. The elders often give newly minted money after the bows are performed.
A significant food eaten during the New Year is the rice cake soup called ttokkuk. Koreans believe that eating this soup adds one year of age and everyone becomes a year older on New Year's Day.
Tet Nguyen Dan is the Lunar New Year festival in Vietnam and is the most important Vietnamese holiday. Tet celebrates the beginning of spring as well as a new year. Literally, Tet Nguyen Dan means the first morning of the first day of the new period.
On New Year's day, a New Year's Tree, or Cay Neu, which is a bamboo pole stripped of its leaves, wrapped in red paper and decorated with clay bells, is place in front of the house to protect the household from evil spirits while the Kitchen Gods are away making their reports.
Families also decorate their homes with yellow Hoa Mai blossoms, which represent spring and Cau Doi couplets, which are verses conveying happiness, wealth, prosperity and longevity written on strips of red paper. They also choose Tet trees, or tac, which are fruit trees with small oranges pruned to ripen near the first day of the New Year.
Special food eaten at Tet include Bahn Day, a round rice cake which represents the sky, and Bahn Chung, a square rice cake filled with bean baste and meat, which represents the earth.
The holiday is also observed by a family visit to the church or pagoda to pray for good fortune and happiness. Tet officially lasts for seven days and ends with the Le Khai Ha ritual during which the Cay Neu is taken down.
br> The Vietnamese lunar calendar features the 12 animals as in the Chinese and Korean zodiac, but instead of the Year of the Rabbit, they have the Year of the Cat.
