As the Tet approaches, Vietnamese people go absolutely crazy to prepare for this special occasion. It’s our major holiday – the time for us to reunite with families, visit relatives and most importantly, get relax after a bustling year. Tet is considered as the transition between the old year and the new one. People decorate, clean their homes and square away their debts. It’s a time to prepare for renewal and rebirth. I usually become a clean freak.
After everything in my house is in order, I reward myself by driving to the nearby flower market to buy flowering branches of blossoms to decorate the house. The blossoms are beautiful symbols of life and resilience. Visiting flower shows, contemplating the buds and blooms, and purchasing blossoms are parts of my annual rituals. The peach (in the North) and the apricot blossoms (in the South) are symbols of the Vietnamese Tet. Actually, Tet doesn’t seem quite right without a few branches of blossoms in the house. While the northerners prefer the warm pink of the peach as they believe that those hues are harbingers of good fortune; the southern Vietnamese seem to be flourishing in the riot of the yellow of the apricot. Mandarin is believed to be the symbol of good fortune; therefore people tend to choose the little plants with verdant leaves which are laden with large, orange fruit for a longer display.
Peach and apricot always bloom around Tet too, and their delicate pink flowers are drop-dead gorgeous. During Tet, you would be likely to be engulfed in an ocean of colorful flowers.
No matter how you obtain your branches and which one you get, decorate your house with branches of these flower makes your home cozier. The gorgeous color of peach blossom and the flourishing yellow of apricot will bring you happiness, fortune and heath next year. Sitting around the table with your family members, enjoy a sip of hot green tea, consume a piece of ginger jam and enjoy the blossom flower while sharing the stories of life, work and recall the past with each other. Tet has changed significantly due to the development of society; however, when mentioning Tet Vietnamese people will the definitely think of family reunion and pilgrimage to the origin.
Photo by collect on the internet.
