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1. Ritual Offerings
Prepare for the Tet festivities with traditional offerings such as incense, joss paper, and ceremonial clothing for departed loved ones.
According to tradition, the 23rd of the lunar month is when we bid farewell to the Kitchen Gods, so ensure your offerings are ready by the 21st or 22nd. Make a checklist to avoid forgetting anything crucial.
Make sure you have all the necessary items for the ritual, including incense, paper money, and ceremonial attire.
2. Sweets and Treats
During Tet holiday, it's essential to have various kinds of cakes and candies, along with seeds such as sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and peanuts, displayed on every family's guest table. Initially for welcoming guests, later for families to gather around and enjoy together.
It's wise to calculate and consider buying sufficient supplies for the family rather than purchasing excessively to avoid wastage since seeds and preserved fruits won't last long.
3. Peach blossoms, apricot blossoms, kumquat trees, etc.
Vietnamese people believe that brightly colored flowers like red, orange, and yellow will bring luck, prosperity, and abundance for the new year. Therefore, families often buy peach blossoms, yellow apricot blossoms, ripe kumquat trees, etc., to decorate and welcome the new year.
In addition to the main flowers of Tet such as peach blossoms and apricot blossoms, it's also necessary to buy other types of flowers to place on the ancestral altar or display indoors during Tet to make the house even more radiant. Examples include money trees, chrysanthemums, apricot blossoms, water lilies, etc.
4. Tet gifts
Giving Tet gifts to grandparents and parents is indispensable once you've grown up. Offering Tet gifts is also a way to express gratitude and affection towards our parents. If you've been giving gifts to your grandparents and parents throughout the year, don't forget to give them other meaningful gifts during this traditional Tet holiday.
Tet gifts for grandparents and parents can be smart home appliances to make household chores easier. Or you can also buy functional foods to support their health care needs.
5. Lucky Money Envelopes
Giving lucky money envelopes at the beginning of the year is considered a beautiful cultural tradition of Vietnamese people on every Lunar New Year. Therefore, don't forget to buy some lovely envelopes to celebrate the age of your beloved family members.
6. Tray of Five Fruits
On the ancestral altar of every Vietnamese family on traditional Tet days, a tray of five fruits is indispensable. Each region has its own way of offering different types of fruits.
In the North, fruits commonly chosen for the tray of five fruits include bananas, pomelos, persimmons, mandarins, and peaches. Meanwhile, in the Central region, the tray typically consists of dragon fruit, bananas, watermelon, mangosteens, oranges, and mandarins. In the South, families usually offer fruits such as mangosteens, pomelos, coconuts, papayas, and mangoes.
7. Chung Cake, Tet Cake
These are traditional cakes that are indispensable during the traditional Tet holiday of the Vietnamese people. Many families in rural areas still maintain the tradition of gathering together to wrap chung cakes and Tet cakes to prepare for a peaceful new year. If your family cannot make them yourselves, it's advisable to purchase them from reputable sources to ensure food safety and hygiene.
8. Tet Serving Foods
Families are usually very busy during the Tet days with cooking, visiting pagodas, and offering Tet greetings. Therefore, it's recommended to prepare various types of foods before Tet and store them for consumption gradually to save time going to the market.
About a week before Tet, you can buy dried foods such as vermicelli, dried mushrooms, and wood ear mushrooms as they are easy to store. As Tet approaches, you should also purchase meats such as beef, pork, chicken, eggs, duck eggs, Vietnamese sausage, and green vegetables... and store them properly to keep the food fresh longer.
9. Beverages
During Tet days, we consume a lot of fatty and protein-rich foods, so it's advisable to buy fruit juices to supplement vitamins, cool down, and relieve thirst for the family during the Lunar New Year.
The above is an article on what to prepare for Tet? A list of items to buy for the Tet holiday. Hopefully, this article will help you prepare for Tet efficiently, without missing any important items. Wishing you and your family a peaceful and happy Tet holiday.
