Lunar New Year is the biggest and most important holiday of Vietnamese people. Right on the first day of the new year is the 1st of the New Year, you should do a few things below to have a happy, prosperous and lucky year. Besides, avoid doing certain things to avoid bad luck.
Things to do on the 1st day of the Lunar New Year:
Burn incense on the 1st day of Tet
Honoring ancestors is a long-standing tradition of the Vietnamese nation. On the first day of the new year, the first thing you need to do is burn incense to offer to your ancestors and ask them to bless the new year with peace and good luck. However, when burning incense on the ancestral altar on the first day of the Lunar New Year, you should burn incense in odd numbers as the most beautiful. Do not burn incense in an even number because this is not a beautiful number.
| On the 1st day of the Lunar New Year, you should burn incense to worship the ancestors to pray for peace, hope for a year full of luck (Artwork) |
Buy salt at the beginning of the year
Buying salt is one of the jobs that bring luck in the morning of the first day of Tet. From the past until now, every morning on the 1st day of the New Year, the mothers and grandmothers buy salt from the salt sellers walking around the village. To this day, when the salt carts are gone, the custom of buying salt on the morning of the 1st is still practiced by mothers and fathers. Buying salt at the beginning of the year is a good thing. Adding salt will help the family have a more salty and stronger new year.
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Going to the temple at the beginning of the year
The ancients believed that, on the occasion of the New Year or the beginning of the new year, one should go to the temple to pray for good luck, ask the Buddha to bless his family, friends, and loved ones for a full and happy year. and good luck… Going to the temple on the first day of the new year is also an activity that Buddhists often do in the morning of the first day of the New Year. This is also one of the cultural and spiritual beauties of the Vietnamese New Year. The pagodas are usually open for people to come in and ask for hexagrams and pick the lucky ones on the morning of the 1st. Going to the temple to pick the fortune at the beginning of the year is also an opportunity for you to visit the scenery and relax following a year of tiring work.
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Ground breaking at the beginning of the year
Washing the ground is something that every house does on the morning of the first day of Tet. Vietnamese people often believe that the first person to break into their house will be the one to bring luck, peace and wealth to the house in the new year. Therefore, many families often choose people to break into their home. The person who breaks the ground must be a person of a beautiful age suitable for that year and in accordance with the owner’s destiny.
Happy New Year on the 1st
Besides going to the temple at the beginning of the year, a custom of wishing Tet on the 1st is also one of the beautiful traditions of the Vietnamese people. Good wishes for relatives during the Lunar New Year is what your relatives and friends always want to hear on the 1st day of the New Year.
Tet lucky money
Good wishes and red envelopes for each other have become a traditional custom in the Vietnamese New Year. Tet lucky money is a substitute for a wish of fortune and luck that grandparents and parents give to their children and grandchildren, or children’s health wishes for grandparents and parents… is something friends give to each other as a wish of good health and prosperity in the new year.
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Wearing red clothes on the 1st day of Tet
The Vietnamese believe that red is a color that symbolizes luck, joy and prosperity. Therefore, on the morning of the first day of the New Year, it is believed that wearing a red suit will bring you much joy and luck in the new year. In addition to the red clothes, you also see that Vietnamese people often hang couplets, red decorations in the house to pray for peace and luck. In addition to the red clothes, you should wear yellow clothes that represent wealth and fortune or blue ones which are the color of peace and happiness… on New Year’s Day.
Lucky draw
In the past, when going to the temple to pray for luck and health, they often picked a small bud to symbolize good luck in the new year. However, nowadays, there are not as many trees as in the past, so to protect the environment, the community encourages them not to harvest. Instead, temple-goers often buy ready-made “lucky” bags containing salt, rice, money, wishes… These objects represent consummation, fullness, money and even health.
Water the flower pots in the house
Watering the flower pots in the house on New Year’s Day is a symbol of auspiciousness and prosperity. Watering the flower pots will help the flowers to proliferate, stay fresh, and bring vibrant spring colors to your home. Since the 1st and 2nd of the first lunar month are the birthdays of the Water God, according to folk beliefs, watering on the first day of the year also replaces the Water God’s wishes to your family.
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Write a wish
When the temple ceremony begins at the beginning of the year, many people leave wishes through small pieces of paper pasted on the trees to get lucky because according to the ancient concept, the wishes written here will be seen by the gods and soon come true.
Eat foods that are said to bring good luck
On the first day of Tet, people often prioritize the following lucky dishes. Fruit is round because it symbolizes roundness, success, smoothness, smooth sailing. Green vegetables because grandparents believe that green vegetables represent health and wellness. Sticky rice is red in color, so it is also a dish that is said to bring a lot of luck.
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Things not to do on the 1st day of the Lunar New Year:
Avoid breaking things
Place all fragile cups and plates, decorations, crockery, etc. carefully, especially if you have children and pets in the house. Because breaking things will damage money and fortune, if you accidentally break it, you have to wrap it in red paper, then silently recite a good omen.
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Avoid showering and washing your hair in the morning
Bathing and shampooing on the first day of the new year will wash away wealth and fortune.
Avoid calling people up
Those who are anxious to do anything should also pay attention, do not call them by other people’s names to wake them up on New Year’s Day, otherwise they will be annoyed by others throughout the year.
Abstain from eating porridge and taking medicine in the morning, avoiding killing
In the past, people ate porridge because they were poor and might not afford to eat, so eating porridge on New Year’s Day would lead to poverty for the whole year. In addition, unless sick, healthy people should not take medicine including vitamins and supplements every day. Besides, should also avoid killing animals at the beginning of the new year to limit bad luck.
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Crying, arguing
Vietnamese people always believe that everything goes well, everything has a good start, then the whole journey will prosper, the new results will be as each person’s wishes. That’s why on the first day of the Lunar New Year, everyone always laughs, jokes, openly chats, avoids crying and arguing.
For fire and water
In the house, fire and water are seen as keepers of good luck and fortune. Therefore, the act of giving fire and water is considered to bring money to others, the new year will be difficult and difficult to earn back.
Loan
Not only on the first day of Tet, but borrowing money is abstained throughout the whole lunar month. Borrowing money on the first day of the year proves that life is not affluent, leading to a whole year of struggling to make a living, making it difficult to get rich.
Hair cutting
According to the ancients, cutting off something from the body on the 1st is cutting off luck. Not only hair, people also limit cutting nails on the 1st.
Avoid cooking new rice
New Year’s Day must eat the New Year’s Eve leftovers from New Year’s Eve.
Avoid napping
There is an old saying that “forbidden to sleep during the day” is to advise people not to be lazy, napping on New Year’s Day will affect career luck.
Avoid doing laundry
Do not do laundry on the 1st and 2nd of the Lunar New Year, it is said that these two days are the birthday of the Water God.
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Avoid splashing, sweeping, and taking out trash
It is believed that every house is lucky, if you sprinkle water, sweep the house and take out the trash on the first day of the new year, the God of Wealth will be sent, fortune and luck will also be washed away, so you don’t trash can be thrown on that day.
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* Information in the article is for reference and contemplation.
