Happy Lunar New Year - Tet

Ava in her Tet outfit from Vietnam (The Tet photo shoot in her new room)

To celebrate Tet we went to a Vietnamese Restaurant with friends. Ava wore her Tet outfit to day care and to dinner. At day care we did a coloring exercise with the kids in her room, then went to the doctors office for a follow up check and she is a healthy girl. YEAH!

January 26th represented the first day of the most important holiday celebrated in Vietnam - Tet. A celebration of the Lunar New Year - To the Vietnamese Têt Nguyên Đán is the Ultimate Holiday. There is nothing like it in the West. Besides the beginning of a new year, Tet also marks the beginning of Spring and everybody's birthday. The actual Tet holiday is three days, though most people tend to take seven or more days off. It is a time for family reunions, exchanging gifts, best wishes, correcting one's faults, forgiving others, paying debts; in short, to start the new year with a clean slate. Literally, Tet Nguyen Dan means the first morning of the first day of the new period. Officially, it marks the beginning of a new year on the lunar calendar. In reality, it is a friendly, festive, family holiday. Painstaking care is given to starting the year out right, since it is believed the first day and the first week of the new year will determine the fortunes or misfortunes for the rest of the year. Links with more information about Tet:

http://www.geocities.com/nha1975/12congiap.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%E1%BA%BFt

http://www.thingsasian.com/stories-photos/1198 - the Vietnamese Zodiac meanings

People often assume that Tet and The Chinese New Year celebrations/calendars are the exactly same and they are not - sometime the new year starts a day off (although rarely) and sometimes different animals are used (although similar). For example this year in Vietnam this is the year of the Water Buffalo in China it is the year of the Ox.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Just a few more pictures...