Celebrating the beginning of the year – cultural beauty is gradually fading in value
Ms. Vu Thi Ngoc (66 years old, Dong Da, Hanoi) shared: “When I was a child, around the 1960s and 1970s, every morning on the first day of Tet, my parents called my brothers and sisters to come out and organize them. The customers say New Year wishes to their parents and then give each child a red envelope with the parents’ wishes for each child of different ages. But in general, they hope for the children to grow up quickly and succeed. Then there are the relatives. members of the family or close friends of our parents came to wish us happy New Year; when my brothers and I saw guests coming, we only bowed our heads and said hello, never thinking regarding who gave lucky money or not.
New Year’s Eve envelopes are kept as souvenirs. Photo: Tran Viet.
Later, people materialized the issue of lucky money, causing children to learn the tendency to judge adults based on the value of lucky money, which lost the spiritual value of celebrating the new year’s birthday. This is worrying, especially for young people who are now parents. I see many people still consider children as an “income” for the family during Tet. It may just be a joke, but if done incorrectly, it will cause those children to have distorted thinking from an early age.”
Sharing the same regret that the tradition of celebrating the new year has lost its traditional cultural beauty, Ms. Doan Thi Khanh Trang (41 years old), a teacher at A Hai Hau High School – Nam Dinh expressed: “Modern people today Nowadays, most people only care regarding the face value of money and do not care regarding the meaning and spiritual value of the New Year celebration culture. Many generations of elderly Vietnamese also feel sad, but over time they do not make an effort to teach their children and grandchildren. regarding receiving lucky money in a culturally correct way.
Families no longer care regarding connotations but only care regarding “reality”. Some places also borrow this form to bribe people’s hearts or make fun of others. The beautiful culture of using lucky money to communicate is gradually being eroded and lost. I always convey this to everyone and I myself am not tempted to adapt to the times, still choosing a very traditional way of behaving.”
For that reason, Ms. Khanh Trang always looks for ancient stories regarding the origin of lucky money to educate her children and students to preserve the beauty of traditional culture.
“The same debt”
From bringing luck to each other at the beginning of the new year, many people today consider celebrating the beginning of the year as “taking on more debt”. Ms. PTN (30 years old, Hai Duong) said: “When I was a child, around the early 2000s, I only received a few birthday wishes, but I really appreciated that money. But as I grew older, everyone was happy with the money. “You get older too. It’s not because you’re older that everyone celebrates your birthday so much, but because of the change in times. Like my younger siblings who are now at home, they get to celebrate their birthday even more.”
On many forums, the value of lucky money is discussed. Screenshots.
But since Ms. N. got married and had children, because the economy is not really prosperous, every Tet holiday, Ms. N. has a headache calculating “profit” – “loss”.
“I don’t know when my perception of celebrating the new year changed. It’s probably been too long since I last cared regarding the luck of money. When I was in school, it was a default thing. savings to do this and that. But now that I’m married, it’s really like a debt. When I first got married and didn’t have children, I usually gave my grandkids a birthday celebration of regarding 50-100 thousand. But since I got married, Children, they celebrate their child’s birthday with 200-500 thousand, but if I don’t celebrate it as much, they might look at me very unsightly. The elders say that what is given is a worry, what is given is a debt. With my friends, It’s the same, maybe a little more comfortable and cheerful, but without reciprocity, it’s very difficult to talk to each other,” Ms. N. continued.
“New Tet, new year celebration”
Currently, according to the development of society, many new ways to celebrate the beginning of the year have been created such as: Bank transfer, giving away books, giving away lottery tickets, or most recently, the trend of printing QR codes on clips has emerged. hair to celebrate the coming of age.
Thuy Linh (21 years old, student in Hanoi) said that in recent years, because she has had more friends from all over the country, and each friend has her own interests and opinions, she often “improvises”. “.
“I have applied almost all forms of New Year celebration. It depends on the situation and depending on who it is, I will celebrate New Year in a different way. My hometown is in the Central region, so with friends in the North – Nam, I will choose to celebrate my birthday online by bank transfer. Due to the geographical distance, you are also very happy with that method. As for my friends who like to read books, I also wrap books in a cover. red bag or red bag and take it to celebrate new year.
I also printed QR hairpins for myself this year and also bought Vietlott lottery tickets to give lucky money for Tet this year. I find this form quite fun and can create laughter when given to close friends. As for family, of course we should still prioritize the traditional form,” Thuy Linh shared.
