Tet's preparation!

Yahooooo....!!!! So Tet is coming in a day or two. Are you ready for it yet? You might feel like you are, but let's double check to see if you really are.
Have you had a farewell celebration to the three Gods of Kitchen? If you got that on the 23rd, you don't have to worry about it anymore. Let us move on.

Now, first of all, you need a kumquat, which needs to be at the most visible place in your house so that any visitor will see it as soon as they walk in; of course the tree got to be decorated with red envelops or greeting cards as I described before. You will need (or at least try) to pay off all your debt, because Vietnamese believe that it will carry bad lucks into the new year; you will need to visit your grandparents and parents the day before Tet to tell them all the great things you have been doing over the year; you will need to buy lots and lots of candy because people will come to greet you; and certainly, do not forget to have some red envelops (with a little money in it) handy, since it is a well-respected tradition (to which all the kids look forward) to give them out for fortune and happiness (picture 1)...
Is that all? No, of course not. I actually leave out some of the most important things. In Vietnam, we have had a pair of well-known parallel sentences, which tells you what it is needed for Tet's holiday.
It says: "Thịt mỡ, dưa hành, câu đối đỏ; cây nêu, cá khánh, bánh chưng xanh", which means "Chubby meat, pickleed welsh onion, red pair of parallel sentences; Tet pole, 'khanh' fish, and green square cakes". Those are more or less what make Tet, well, Tet. Even though the "formula" hasn't been closely followed during the last decade, green square cakes are never absence (picture 2).
Moreover, as most Vietnamese practice ancestor worship, the prepration requires a five-fruit dish (picture 3) to be displayed in order to invite the souls of the ancestors come back and enjoy the holiday with the family. Now, the dish varies from family to family and it might include mandarins, sapodillas, apples, bananas and pommels. Among those, the last two is always present. Then, Vietnamese will burn incense at least twice before Tet's day. One is early in the morning of the last day of the year, and the other right before the New Year's Eve (picture 4). They both are meant to show the ancestors how faithful family is to them.

In brief, that are all I have for the pre-Tet spirit. If you have all of these, you are ready to have a wonderful and completed holiday in Vietnam. If you don't, don't worry because holidays are wonderful and completed anyhow. I wish you all the best in the world!
Oh, and just so you know, it gets even more interesting with some other traditions when Tet actually comes, but I won't tell them right away. As it has not been Tet yet, let’s go out there and do our best to prepare for it. We certainly want to welcome it with our fullest heart and mind!
Happy preparation to you all! :-)
-nxh