Interesting Tet (Lunar New Year) customs of Vietnamese ethnic groups.

Lunar New Year, a festival deeply rooted in Asian culture, has become a spiritual link connecting billions of people. From populous countries like China and India to small nations like Bhutan and Nepal, the New Year is celebrated with unique rituals and customs.

Related articles

Free admission to the Ho Dynasty Citadel and Lam Kinh historical site during the Lunar New Year of the Snake 2025.

During the peak days leading up to Tet (Lunar New Year): Airline tickets are sold out, and bus and train fares are sky-high.

In Vietnam, a country with 54 ethnic groups, the Lunar New Year is especially vibrant with its myriad cultural colors. Each ethnic group has its own way of celebrating the New Year, with distinct customs and traditions, creating a diverse and rich cultural tapestry.

The Thai people celebrate the New Year with thunder.

According to the beliefs of the Thai ethnic group, the first thunderclap after the Lunar New Year signals the true arrival of the new year for everyone and every household. This is the opportune time for sowing seeds and planting trees, so immediately after the thunderclap, everyone goes to the fields to work and produce, and prays for a new year of favorable weather, abundant harvests, and prosperity.

In the past, the Thai ethnic group did not celebrate Lunar New Year as they do now. Their New Year was in March, when thunder rumbled everywhere, flowers bloomed, and new shoots covered the mountains and forests in vibrant green. Only then did the Thai people begin the "Chôm pý mở" ceremony – celebrating the new year.

This is one of the most important rituals in the folk religious life of the Thai ethnic group. Previously, the offering tray on the day celebrating the first thunderclap of the year was very simple, consisting only of a bottle of wine with five cups, five bowls of water, and two pieces of betel quid placed in the middle of the altar, after which a shaman was invited to perform the ceremony.

When the first thunder of the year rumbles (from January to March in the lunar calendar), the first thing parents do is call to inform their children and siblings. Then, the elders go throughout their house, touching various objects and items as a way of "awakening" them and announcing that the heavens have granted them an auspicious day for the new year.

At the same time, the women and mothers boiled eggs and gave one to each family member to wash their face. They would rub the egg on their face while reciting a prayer in Thai: “Xuoi na pha hoong, pi mo du di, coi ci coi du ho na mot nang xay na may nang tanh, Hanh nang chang, nang ma”. This roughly translates to: “Washing our faces to celebrate the thunder, to celebrate the new year, praying that our faces will be as white as peeled eggs, as smooth as melons, and as strong as elephants and horses in the forest…”. After washing their faces and eggs, the children used hollow bamboo tubes to suck up water to rinse their mouths, symbolizing a wish for smooth sailing and intelligence in the new year. After rinsing, the eggs were boiled and everyone ate their share.

The celebration of the Thunder Festival – a unique and meaningful custom preserved to this day – is a way for the Thai ethnic group to preserve their roots and distinctive cultural characteristics.

The Pu Péo people's custom of "stealing the rooster's voice to welcome Tet"

The Pu Péo people are one of the oldest inhabitants of the northernmost highlands of Ha Giang province. Although very few Pu Péo people remain, the customs they have preserved are truly unique, including the custom of "stealing the rooster's voice during Tet."

Previously, the Pu Péo people lived in stilt houses, but due to extensive deforestation, finding building materials became difficult, forcing them to switch to houses on the ground. Pu Péo houses have a unique architectural style, with a very scientific distribution of living space on a single level. The house has a main entrance in the central section, with five additional windows above to let in light. The stone pillars supporting the entrance are often carved with images of roosters and the sun, symbolizing the harmonious balance of yin and yang, the source of growth and prosperity for humanity and all things in the universe.

Perhaps it is because of this belief that, on New Year's Eve, the Pu Péo people also have the custom of "welcoming the rooster's crow" or "stealing the rooster's crow" to pray for good luck in the new year. At the moment of midnight, the Pu Péo people keep a close watch on the roosters. When the rooster flaps its wings, preparing to crow, they immediately light a firecracker and throw it into the chicken coop. The roosters are startled, jump up, and crow. Immediately, everyone starts singing loudly to drown out the rooster's crow. The Pu Péo people believe that the rooster's crow is both beautiful and sacred, waking up even the sun. Therefore, whoever drowns out the rooster's crow will have a beautiful singing voice, good luck, success, and happiness in the new year.

Besides maintaining the custom of welcoming the rooster's crow, the Pu Péo ethnic group also has a very unique traditional New Year's custom. During the New Year's days, the Pu Péo people also have the custom of making sticky rice cakes (bánh chưng), but they make two types: black sticky rice cakes (mí uột lặng) to eat on the evening of the 29th of the lunar month to end the old year, and white sticky rice cakes (mí uột lìn) to offer as sacrifices on the evening of the 30th of the lunar month to celebrate the new year. When the new year begins (after midnight), if anyone opens the door to go outside, they must bring a gift back into the house for good luck; that gift could be a bundle of firewood.

The custom of pasting red paper during Tet (Lunar New Year) among the Tay and Nung people.

In the traditional stilt houses of the Tay and Nung people, the most sacred place is the ancestral altar. The altar is usually placed in the central room, the highest and most dignified position in the house, reflecting the deep respect that the Nung people have for their ancestors.

The ancestral altar of the Tay and Nung people is considered a "bridge" between ancestors and family, between the living and the deceased. Therefore, the altar plays an extremely important role in the daily life and spiritual life of Tay and Nung families. Typically, the ancestral altar is covered with red paper, with Chinese characters written on it.

The writings are often couplets or words with educational meanings, instructing their children and grandchildren about the customs and traditions of their ethnic group. They believe that red is a color that brings good luck and peace; red symbolizes yang energy, sunlight, and the hearth that warms and cooks food in the family... Therefore, red wallpaper is often used by the Nung people to decorate their homes and pray for good fortune.

According to the elders, in the old days, during the Lunar New Year, the whole village would excitedly prepare food and clothes to celebrate, but demons from the high mountains would often appear and destroy people's belongings, livestock, and poultry. Therefore, the villagers had to assign people to guard and stand watch to prevent the demons from causing trouble. One year, a family in the village hung a red cloth out in their yard. The demons, as usual, came to wreak havoc in the village, but as soon as they reached the edge of the village, they saw the red cloth hanging in front of the house from afar and quickly fled. Since then, every Lunar New Year, the villagers would paste red paper on their belongings and items hoping to ward off evil spirits and pray for good luck and peace.

The Pà Thẻn people and the custom of worshipping with a bowl of plain water.

For the Pà Thẻn people, the Lunar New Year is the biggest festival of the year. It marks the end of a year of hard work, a time for rest and enjoyment of the fruits of their labor: barns full of rice, kitchens full of corn, and barns full of livestock. The Pà Thẻn have a unique custom of worshipping a bowl of plain water year-round on their family's ancestral altar, with a plate placed upside down on top of the bowl.

If the water level drops, the head of the household must wait until June to open the bowl and add more water to fill it up. On New Year's Eve, all the doors in the house are closed and all ventilation holes are sealed. The head of the household then uses the water from the bowl to clean everything thoroughly and replaces the water with fresh water to welcome the new year. All these actions are done in secret; if they are leaked, the whole family will face bad luck and misfortune in the coming year.

Tet, the Lunar New Year, marks the beginning of a new year, so everyone hopes to achieve good fortune in the coming year. Therefore, certain Tet customs have become deeply ingrained in Vietnamese life, becoming an indispensable part and a habit in Vietnamese culture. These are beautiful traditions that everyone should cherish and follow.

Khanh Linh