As mentioned in the post ”Colorful cultural picture” of the series “Traditional Tet of ethnic minorities in Vietnam,” Tet to celebrate the new year is a special cultural activitiesreflecting ethnic cultural diversity.
So we need to respect Tet cultural heritage of the people and should be evaluated from the perspective of a unique cultural heritage.
Vietnamese cultural value system
Talking regarding the value of the traditional Tet of ethnic minorities, Dr. Tran Huu Son, Director of the Institute for Research and Application of Vietnamese Folk Art, said that Tet with the sacred mechanism is an activity of preserving cultural heritage and cultural heritage. protect the value system of the family and the community. On New Year’s Day, people who work far away return to their families, children visit their parents, grandchildren visit grandparents…
Tet is an occasion for families to gather, an opportunity for people in the community to meet and exchange. Tet is also a reunion between the everyday world and the spiritual world when families hold worshiping ceremonies to welcome their ancestors back to celebrate Tet, and at the end of Tet, they will send their ancestors off… All these things make Tet become sacred, imbued with the value of reunion.
Besides, Tet is also an opportunity to bring all the heritage and cultural values of the people to bloom and blossom. From food, costumes to community activities.
On New Year’s Day, ethnic minorities will wear new costumes, perform ancestral worship rituals, and worship gods in spiritual life. On New Year’s Day, ethnic minorities meet, exchange and exchange cultures through festivals and folk games. The New Year’s meal will be different from the usual meal. The costumes worn by the people on New Year’s Day are also the most beautiful traditional costumes. Everyone behaves politely, happily, warmly…
[Người Hà Nhì ở Điện Biên vui đón Tết cổ truyền Hồ Sự Chà]
From an economic perspective, Tet is a cycle to rest, to energize, to preserve culture and to move from the production area to the service sector, because holidays and Tet are also tourist seasons. And so, the economic value of Tet is also very prominent.
Some folklore researchers also believe that the traditional Tet holiday is a “system of cultural values” imbued with the nation’s identity. In the value system of Vietnamese Tet, there are equal values (Tet is for everyone, everyone has the right to celebrate Tet, even in different periods and circumstances).
The second value is community membership, (everyone looks forward to their family, homeland, and country, Tet is the time when everyone looks forward to reunion). The spiritual value is “drinking water, remembering the source”, gratitude to ancestors, consciousness towards the origin, towards cultural traditions… this creates a sustainable moral value of love for the motherland and country. , ethnic.
In addition, New Year’s Day also has the value of beauty, goodness, morality and good behavior. During Tet, people abstain from doing bad things, saying bad things…
Looking at Tet from the perspective of heritage
In fact, at present, the organization of Tet in ethnic minority areas still has many shortcomings, some ethnic groups are recognized by the locality to welcome the traditional New Year, and there are policies for pupils, students, and staff. Some ethnic minority people take a break from work to celebrate Tet, but there are also ethnic minorities who are still campaigned to quit Tet holidaycelebrate the Lunar New Year like Vietnamese people, to save production labor time…
Dr. Tran Huu Son said that when researching regarding Tet, we need to put it in a cultural practice environment. Tet to welcome the new year contains the traditional values of each ethnic group. Tet holiday is not only considered and evaluated from a purely economic perspective, but also needs to be evaluated from the perspective of a unique cultural heritage.
Cultural space for Tet Ho Su Cha is a traditional beauty of Ha Nhi people with a combination of spiritual rituals, cultural and artistic activities; is an opportunity to show gratitude and filial piety of Ha Nhi’s descendants to their ancestors. (Photo: Xuan Tu/VNA)Currently, the living standards of ethnic minority people are improved, community cohesion, understanding the origin and cultural identity of the nation are becoming important needs. People at the grassroots have the desire to celebrate the traditional Tet of their nation. Tet is always associated with spiritual life and cultural life that cannot be ignored.
“In many countries around the world such as Australia, Japan… although we celebrate Tet according to the solar calendar, we still respect the traditional New Year days of some regions, localities and ethnic groups. In Australia, states with large ethnic communities such as Vietnamese, Chinese, Filipinos…, the Government of this country allows these communities to have Tet holiday. From the experience of the world, I think we are also interested in organizing the traditional Tet celebration of ethnic minorities,” said Dr. Tran Huu Son.
According to Mr. Tran Huu Son, cultural diversity plays a very important role in the construction of new countryside, economic and social development in ethnic minority areas. Therefore, we should not have a culturally imposed mindset, or interfere from the outside in the culture of our compatriots, but we should respect the cultural heritage of the people during Tet, respect the wishes of the people. They choose to have a traditional Tet according to their own national calendar, or to celebrate Tet according to the Lunar New Year, or to eat both. At the same time, it is necessary to develop a number of policies to organize Tet of ethnic minorities, such as policies for people to have a holiday to celebrate their own traditional Tet…
In Vietnam, Tet of Khmer people and Tet of Cham people have been recognized and respected by the State, we also need to respect and support and congratulate when other ethnic groups celebrate Tet of our compatriots. such as Tet of the Mong people, Tet of the Ha Nhi people, Tet of the Kho Mu…
In other words, the organization of the traditional Tet has become a “cultural value system” imbued with the national identity of the people. The preservation of the traditional Tet of the people is to preserve the culture, preserve the value system of the family, the value system of the community, the value system of the nation…
In a nutshell, that is the way of life, the customs and practices of each family, clan, village community and we need to respect it,” emphasized Dr. Tran Huu Son.
Lesson 1: Colorful cultural picture in Vietnamese traditional New Year
Phuong Ha (VNA/Vietnam+)