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TET is coming!

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By Ngoc Thanh

Travel | January 16, 2020

VNexpress.com




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A Tet market, open only once a year for Lunar New Year, or Tet, the country’s biggest and most important holiday, runs from Hang Luoc, Hang Khoai, Hang Ruoi, Hang Ma streets to Phung Hung mural street, offering fresh flowers, ornamental plants and a slew of festive decorations.

Vietnamese have a long tradition of offering fresh flowers to deities and ancestors alongside holiday prayers for luck and peace.



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Customers inspect fresh flowers in front of a shop on Hang Luoc Street, known as one of the oldest flower markets in Hanoi.

Nguyen Thi Tan (middle) from Bac Ninh Province, an hour’s drive from Hanoi, said every year she travels dozens of kilometers to the Old Quarter to buy small peach branches and other Tet decorations for her house. Peach blossoms are an indispensable Tet decoration in northern Vietnam.



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For the Year of the Rat, many items on Hang Ma Street, famous for selling toys, paper goods and in particular votive paper offerings, take inspiration from the zodiac animal.

The country will enjoy a seven-day Tet holiday staring January 23, two days before Lunar New Year.



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Nga Tuyet, owner of a shop selling artificial firecrackers wrapped in red paper, said the item has become increasingly popular in recent years.



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This year, handicraft items such as banh chung(square sticky rice cakes), Vietnamese pork sausage, coins, watermelons, firecrackers, and fake peach branches are widely sold.



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Hang Ga and Hang Ma streets are dyed red. Many Vietnamese consider red a symbol of luck and prosperity and credit their business success and happiness to divine blessings. Many family maintain the custom of hanging red hand-made scrolls, lanterns or calligraphy in front of their homes.



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The market will operate until Lunar New Year's Eve, which falls on January 24 this year.



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Shoppers hustle to purchase necessities before the streets fall silent
 
where is the squared glutinous rice packed with leaf?
Did u live in VN ? Seem like we dont sell that Lunar new year cakes on the street anymore but selling inside super market cos it will be preserved better in the fridge.

Here is the link abt history of the cake.

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Bánh chưng

A pair of bánh chưng wrapped in lá dong ready to be steamed

According to the book Lĩnh Nam chích quái (Extraordinary stories of Lĩnh Nam) published in 1695, the creation of bánh chưng was credited to Lang Liêu, a prince of the last Sixth Hùng Dynasty of the Hùng dynasty (c. 1712 - 1632 BC). It was said that in choosing a successor among his sons, the monarch decided to carry out a competition in which each prince brought a delicacy representing the sincerity for the ancestors on the occasion of the tết, whoever could introduce the most delicious dish for the altar would become the next ruler of the country. While other princes tried to find the rare and delicious foods from forest and sea, the eighteenth prince, Lang Liêu, who was the poorest son of the Hùng king, could not afford such luxurious dishes and had to be content with everyday ingredients, such as rice and pork. Finally, he created one cake in the square form of earth called bánh chưng and one in the round form of sky called bánh giầy from these simple ingredients. In tasting the dishes offered by his son, the Hùng king found bánh chưng and bánh giầy not only delicious but also a fine representation of the respect for ancestors. Therefore, he decided to cede the throne to Lang Liêu and bánh chưng, bánh giầy became traditional foods during the tết.[2][3][4] Lang Liêu founded the Seventh Hùng dynasty (c. 1631 - 1432 BC).

Considered an indispensable dish of the Tết, bánh chưng is placed in the family altars in order to honor the ancestors and pray them to support the family in the new year.[5] Wrapped in a green square package, bánh chưng symbolizes the earth,[6] the variant ingredients of bánh chưng which comes from all the products of nature also emphasize the meaning of bánh chưng with Vietnamese people.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bánh_chưng
 
i dont live in vietnam. i travelled to Hanoi for testing & commissioning a project just before the tet 3 times in the 90s
Those tets were common along the road sides then.
 

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