New Year Celeration Between Vietnam and America

New Years is an exciting holiday in many countries. It marks a new period of time with the pure and pristine beginning for individuals. Every country has a unique cultural celebration and specific traditions depending on where you live. However, there is a big difference between how Asian people and Western people celebrate New Year. The three most noticeable differences are in the preparation, travel and length of the holiday will be last.

The first big different between those two countries is the preparation for New Year Day. In the United States, they use the Gregorian calendar so people celebrate New Year on January first. Christmas day is an important holiday to American people. The preparation for New Year’s Day only begins after Christmas day, so it usually takes less than a week. Although there are only a few days to prepare for the New Year’s Day, American people it is still have a lot of time to do it. Most of people have prepared for the Christmas holiday, so they do not have to prepare much for New Year. Unlike American people, Vietnamese New Year, or “Tet,” usually happens between the middle of January and the beginning of February in the Gregorian calendar because we are using the Chinese calendar.

“Tet” is an important holiday to Vietnamese people. It is a time for famers to take a break, and it is also a time for people to reunite with their families. The preparation for Tet usually is planned a month in advance. It starts at the beginning of December in the Chinese calendar. Vietnamese people are trying to clean the house, or paint new colors in order to welcome New Years, and make everything are new in the New Year Day. Besides that, they are buy food, flowers and sweets to keep during the next three days of Tet.

Another difference is where people will travel during the New Year holiday. Some American people like to go back to their family since the Christmas day and will stay until the New Year day. Some will take this occasion to travel to other countries, or other states during the holiday period. In contrast, a Vietnamese tradition is that everybody goes back to their families and their hometowns. People go back to help their family to clean the houses or together with their relative to make tradition foods for the New Year Day.

In addition, the period of New Year celebration between these two countries is not the same. New Years in the United States only has two days to celebrate. People celebrate on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. After New Year Day, everything will be back to normal, people are back to their work, and be ready for a new year ahead. However, the spirit of Tet in Vietnamese people usually lasts more than a week, but the Tet official is the first three days of January in lunar calendar. The first day of Tet is the day for family.

People gather together to wish everybody in the family the best year ahead; then elderly people give red envelops that have money inside to younger people which is considering as“lucky money.” The second day is a day for visiting relative, teacher or special guest. The third day is a day for friends or just stay at home to enjoy the food and the spirit of Tet. Although Tet is only the first three days to celebrate; people are keep saying “Happy New Year” when they see each other during the following week. The atmosphere of Tet is still inside everybody.

From the information given, New Year in each country has a unique celebration; especially there is a big different between America and Vietnam in the ways of the celebration, where people travel during the holiday, and how long the holiday lasts. Even though these two countries have a different custom and traditions, but it is always carry the same meaning of what a New Year celebration is. We are expecting a new life, wishing each other good luck and promising ourselves to do better in the following year.