Tết

To the Vietnamese community, Tết, or Vietnamese Lunar New Year, is the largest celebration of the year.

In my own family, Tết is an entire week of red gladiola flowers, candied coconut and red-dyed watermelon seeds. It is an entire week of my dad asking Alexa to play “Happy New Year” by ABBA, and it is an entire week of glutinous rice cake for breakfast.

Every year, to celebrate the beginning of the Lunar calendar, my extended family, my parents, grandparents, great aunts, uncles and cousins gather to pray to our ancestors and eat. My grandparents’ house is filled with red and gold ao dai, traditional vietnamese dresses, red envelopes hanging from mai flowers and Vietnamese food piled on top of foil platters.

Is Tết similar to Chinese New Year? Yes. Is it Chinese New Year? No.