It is Tết, the Vietnamese lunar new year, which has been celebrated every winter or spring (depending on the lunar calendar) for over 4,000 years. This coming year is the year of the rooster, an inauspicious sign, for the rooster is largely associated with bad luck, and the way the world is, that is an ominous sign indeed.

The streets are largely empty, the shops closed, as people prepare for the year of the Rooster. At this time of the year people are busy cleaning their houses and whitewashing the walls. The bottom of tree trunks are whitewashed and everywhere people put the Vietnamese flag outside their shops and homes, a yellow star on blood red background. Or else. Police like to get stroppy at this time of year, and sinister looking trucks patrol the streets removing unlicensed street vendors and confiscating their stalls. And they check that the flags are flying.

The Lunar New Year is February 09, 2005, which is the year 4703 in the Lunar Calendar. At this time of the year it is considered auspicious to repay your debts, to not to take a shower in case it washes away your good luck, to hear a song bird, a red-colored bird, or a swallow and to not use scissors in case it cuts off your fortune. During this festival, Vietnamese women commonly walk around in an áo dà i, which is a long, traditional gown, worn only on special occasions. The beautiful Vietnamese women glide by in these billowing silk dresses looking as though they are literally floating on air. Impossibly cute children are dressed up in their best clothes while people busy themselves in the markets to prepare traditonal new year dishes such as mứt hột sen, a sweet lotus candy and the famous bánh chưng, a cake made of rice, pork, and mung beans, wrapped in banana leaves which gives the rice a sweet smell and enhances the taste.

Technically gambling is illegal in Vietnam, as in Thailand, but over the new year the government allows people to play a game known as Bầu Cua. Players, both children and adults place bets on an animal and put their money on its picture. Three special dice are rolled and the winner wins good luck. And of course the money. How you fare at Bầu Cua is supposed to represent how the coming year will unfold for you, fortunate or unfortunate as the die dictate. Breaking dishes or arguing is to be avoided and parents give their children little red packets containing money. Ironically, it is also considered fortunate for an employee to give his employer some money, presumably so that they won't get fired.

I took my time to practice saying Chúc mừng Năm Mới! (pronounced chook-mung-nam-moy) but was soon told that if I said this I should also give a gift of money, and so I quickly dropped the idea.

Tết is a more subdued, family affair here. On the eve of the new year, many people go to pagodas to pray to Buddha, they light candles at small streetside altars with garlands of lotus flowers and the sweet smell of incense. Crackers are let off to ward off evil spirits, and people walk in parks and greet one another, wishing each other luck for the year ahead. At the end of the park a huge firework display is lit with marvellous soaring colours and starbursts - sadly I missed this display. After the display the unusually quiet streets suddenly spring back into motorbike madness, with rivers of people hurtling past, zipping their way to their families where they will spend the next day and the following morning, eating, drinking, gambling and catching up with one anothers lives.

It's a quiet night for me, and in every sense I felt that this was their holiday, their festival and not mine. Again I wondered if I was giving Vietnam the energy I normally give to other cultures, and get the sense again that I'm all travelled out, and that its time to start the slow journey home, but again wonder where that is now.

The next day, the actual new year day, there's little to do other than just drink the day away, read, write and eat. I talk to a few people, get propositioned by a pretty prostitute a couple of times, watch a dragon dance or two, and just mooch about watching the pretty women and beautiful children slide past with happy smiles on their faces. My heart gladdens at their simple joy.

Chúc mừng Năm Mới!

yechydda,