What do Vietnamese do during the Spring Festival?

★ Vietnam Spring Festival Vietnam is one of the few countries in the world that use the lunar calendar, and it is also one of the few countries that celebrate the Spring Festival nationwide. The Spring Festival is the largest and most lively traditional festival among Vietnamese people. Vietnamese regard the Spring Festival as a day to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. Generally, preparations for the Spring Festival begin in the middle of February of the 65438+ lunar calendar. In the past, flowers, Chinese New Year's jiaozi, Spring Festival couplets and firecrackers were probably the most indispensable things for Vietnamese Spring Festival. ★ Spring Festival Flower Market is one of the important activities of Vietnamese Spring Festival. For example, in Hanoi, the flower market began to be lively about 10 days before the Spring Festival. Vietnamese favorite annual flowers are gladiolus, dahlia, kumquat and peach blossom. In addition to flowers and bonsai, the flower market also sells all kinds of balloons, colored lights, toys, New Year pictures, Spring Festival couplets, calendars and so on. , make the connected streets colorful and jubilant. ★ Spring Festival features ◇ Sticking Spring Festival couplets and wishing the Vietnamese people the habit of sticking Spring Festival couplets during the Spring Festival. In the past, Spring Festival couplets were written in Chinese characters, but now most Spring Festival couplets are written in pinyin, and each pinyin word is a square with its own style. In addition, Vietnamese people also like to paste the words "Fu" and "Xi" and the images of Fu, Lu and the birthday girl at home, as well as various traditional New Year pictures to express their good wishes and yearning for the New Year. ◇ New Year's Cake Local Chinese must have new year's cakes and other foods, and Vietnamese are no exception. Among them, the rice cakes and glutinous rice cakes have the most ethnic characteristics. The making method of zongzi is the same as that we eat, but Vietnamese zongzi is square and much bigger. Generally, it is 200 grams of glutinous rice, with 200 grams of pork and 150 grams of mung bean paste in the middle and banana leaves outside. Legend has it that Nianzong symbolizes the earth, green represents vitality, and pork and mung bean paste represent birds and animals. Fireworks Vietnamese used to set off firecrackers during the Spring Festival, but since 1995, the Vietnamese government has banned people from setting off fireworks during the Spring Festival. China people have the custom of vigil on New Year's Eve, and so do Vietnamese people. On New Year's Eve, people put on holiday costumes and flocked to the streets. Young women also put on Vietnamese cheongsam. At 0: 00, when the national leader's Spring Festival speech was broadcast on the radio, the festive atmosphere reached its climax. Then people also picked a branch to go home. This custom is called "picking green". In Vietnamese, "green" and "road" are homonyms. "Picking green" means "lucky picking", which means bringing good luck home. The first guest in the Spring Festival will bring good luck. Vietnamese people have a few days off as usual during the Spring Festival, and they also have the custom of visiting relatives and friends. The first visitor to pay New Year's greetings is especially valued. It is said that he will bring good luck to his master. Vietnamese people call it "rushing home" or "rushing to the ground", meaning close to "rushing to happiness". Therefore, Vietnamese usually invite their closest and most respected friends as the first guests of the Spring Festival. Entertainment activities Apart from visiting relatives and friends, during the Spring Festival, streets, parks and public places of entertainment throughout Vietnam held various entertainment activities for several days, performing traditional Vietnamese dramas, songs and dances, acrobatics, martial arts, wrestling and lion dancing, as well as folk activities such as swinging, playing chess, cockfighting and bird shooting. The whole of Vietnam is immersed in the festive atmosphere. ★ There are many Vietnamese New Year customs. The Spring Festival in Vietnam begins with the Kitchen God Festival on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, and the atmosphere of the New Year runs through the first month. According to Vietnamese folk sayings, the first month is the month of "eating, drinking and having fun". According to Vietnamese folklore, on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, all the gods on the earth will return to heaven to report the situation for one year. Kitchen God is the god in charge of a family life, and he will also report the situation to the heaven for one year. With the kitchen god gone, there is no god to look after at home. At this time, you can sweep the yard and rebuild some places in your home that you dare not move to prepare for the New Year. This day is also called going in and out. This is obviously the same as the folk legend about the kitchen god in China. In order to send the kitchen god on the road and let the kitchen god hold his hand high, people have to release the kitchen god's mount-carp. You have to prepare new year's goods in and out. We can see the traditional new year's goods from the folk song "red couplets pickled buckwheat fat meat, green dumplings sweet stick firecrackers". Now that life is good, fat meat is not necessary. It is necessary to buy a lot of meat during the New Year. No matter how beautiful life is, this kind of pickled buckwheat still stays on people's dining table and becomes a traditional symbol of the New Year. Although some people still buy couplets, Chinese characters are not so popular because they have lost the status of official characters. Sense of prevention is something to avoid disaster, and it can't be less. As for setting off firecrackers, 1995, the Vietnamese government abolished this traditional way of greeting the New Year by a paper order. In order to preserve the atmosphere of China New Year, the Vietnamese government organizes fireworks display in the central squares of large and medium-sized cities every New Year's Eve. Nianzong is used to worship ancestors. Vietnamese zongzi is square, only about 1 kg, which means round place. In the homes of Yue (Beijing) people, there are three kinds of decorations during the Spring Festival: peach blossom, kumquat bonsai and "five-fruit pot". In the eyes of Vietnamese, peach blossom is an evil spirit and a symbol of good luck. Kumquat means good luck. In the south of central Vietnam, due to climatic reasons, there are no peach blossoms, so Huang Meihua is generally used instead. As decoration, not only at home, but also in shops, and even in various government agencies and units. At the same time, all units will hang banners at the door to welcome the New Year, even temples and other places are no exception, because temples are the main places for Vietnamese New Year activities. Various literary and art units will also organize street performances on New Year's Eve to create a new year atmosphere. As a legal holiday, Vietnam has a three-day holiday during the Spring Festival. Every household will plant the national flag at home, and the residents in the building will plant the national flag outside the window, forming a unique landscape. The "five fruit pots" are used to worship ancestors. Generally, there are five kinds: annona, coconut, Shui Rong fruit and mango. In Vietnamese, the pronunciation of annona is the same as "Qiu", coconut is the same as "Ying", Shui Rong fruit is the same as "Chong", and mango is the same as "Shi", which means to wish you ample food and clothing every year and inexhaustible money. During the Chinese New Year, Vietnamese people will travel thousands of miles to Wan Li to get home, just for the whole family to sit together, have dinner and celebrate the New Year together. The old year is approaching, and the new year is approaching. Putting incense tables to welcome the new year is called the "Year Law". On New Year's Eve, Vietnamese also have the custom of "seeking money". Generally speaking, there are two kinds: one is called "collecting records", which usually picks a branch of a green leaf when returning from a temple to worship ancestors, meaning to collect the blessings given by the god of heaven and earth. This branch was taken back and planted in front of the shrine at home until the leaves withered. The other is to take some fruit back, also called "Lu", which can be distributed to relatives and friends as a blessing. On the first morning, every family has to worship their ancestors, and at the same time, they have to worship the ground, the kitchen god and the ancestors of hundreds of artists. There are not many sacrifices, generally zongzi, braised fish, meatballs, roasted meat, pickled buckwheat head and beef. After the worship, children should pay New Year greetings to the elderly at home, and adults should give them lucky money. At breakfast, every household eats glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in reed leaves. The feature is "Happy New Year". Vietnamese attach great importance to the first person to visit their home in the New Year. This person is called "Happy New Year". Many families will entrust a loyal, kind and blessed person to "pay New Year greetings" before the New Year, in order to achieve good luck and all the best in the new year. There are many fascinating activities on Vietnamese New Year's Day: singing and dancing, performing drama, dragon and lion dancing, and the most distinctive activity is playing chess. Draw the chessboard of China chess on the ground, and the person holding the board (the board is engraved with cars, horses, guns, etc. The corresponding pawn) will sit on the field as a pawn. When playing chess, the players are out, and others beat drums to urge them, which is quite like the battlefield of Jin Ge's iron horse. It has a strong sense of reality and is deeply loved by the Vietnamese people. There are also many taboos on New Year's Day, such as: no quarreling, no swearing, no borrowing, no debt collection; And you can't do farm work, otherwise it will disturb the land god and the crops will suffer; You can't sweep the floor in the first day. Even if you sweep the floor, you can't take out the garbage. You have to wait until three days before you can break ground. On the third day of the second day, a married man, if his parents are still alive, must pay New Year greetings and give gifts to his parents; If your parents have passed away, you should take an offering and go to your eldest brother's house to worship your parents' spirits. On the fourth day, people burned paper money and clothes as sacrifices to their ancestors. On this day, the whole family will get together for a reunion dinner. In the first month of each month, Vietnamese often have many activities, collectively called "enjoying spring". There are daffodils, lanterns, singing operas, folk songs duet, temple worship, visiting places of interest and so on. Ethnic minorities in Vietnam have their own holiday characteristics. For example, on New Year's Eve, the Miao people used not to set off firecrackers, but to set off shotguns in a unified way. They first went to the stream to burn incense and sacrifice, and then fetched water to go home and cook the New Year's Eve. Sacrifice ancestors before meals and don't drink soup after meals, thinking that drinking soup will flood crops; During the Spring Festival, people from the whole village or several villages get together to hold singing competitions, dance national dances and throw hydrangeas.