Vietnamese Tet's Games and Artworks
A Vietnamese lady in a white Ao Dai (a traditional long tunic dress) and a conical hat with a beautiful greeting smile to welcome Tet. This picture came from a business magazine cover. On the left corner is a picture of the old shopping mall in Ho Chi Minh City, the cho Ben Thanh (Ben Thanh market). It is a very popular place for tourists to shop for souvenirs and everything else.
I cut this ad out of a Vietnamese magazine from last year. The writing on the right - Chuc Mung Nam Moi - means Happy New Year. The writing on the left is a translation from a Chinese saying means Happy New Year, your wish for a prosperous year will come true. The pink flowers on the upper left corner are the Cherry Blossoms, every household in the northern part of Viet Nam has to have these flowers to decorate their house to welcome the new year. Whereas in the southern part of Viet Nam, the Mai (yellow flowers) are in much demand during the Tet season. In addition, according to tradition, you can't celebrate Tet without a pair of Banh Chung (a square-shaped sweet rice cake wrapped in banana leaves) and watermelons.
This is a story about how Banh Chung became a must-have tradition during Tet in Viet Nam. King Hung Vuong had twenty two sons, but couldn't decide to whom to give the throne. After many sleepless nights, he finally decided to have a food offering contest to see which of the sons would bring an original and tasty dish as offering to the ancestors during the Tet celebration. The princes sent people in all Viet Nam to find them the best and most expensive dishes. But the eighteenth prince, named Lang Lieu, tried as he might, could not find or think of any dishes as an offering to the King.
Three days before the contest due date, Lang Lieu dreamed of a fairy who told him to make a pair of Banh Chung using the most precious grain, the rice. The rice cake with the square shape which represents the earth. The outer layer wraps in green banana leaves. In the middle has pork meat and mung bean to represent animals and plants on earth. Lang Lieu woke up and followed the recipes that the fairy gave. On the day of the contest, King Hung Vuong tasted all twenty two dishes from his sons, but decided that Lang Lieu's Banh Chung was the most tasty, unusual and meaningful of all. The King then gave Lang Lieu his throne, and from then on every household in Viet Nam has to have Banh Chung as an offering to the ancestors during Tet.
Li-Xi is a Chinese custom of giving out money to children for good luck, and the Vietnamese also adopted this custom for Tet.
This game is called Tam Cuc, it is a very popular game during Tet in the northern Viet Nam when people will do nothing except play, eat, and visiting relatives and friends for the first three days of the new year. It is a very complicated game (like chess) that I won't bother to explain how to play.
This is a Bau Cua game board with three cubes, a plate and a bowl (not included in the game box) to shake the cubes.
In southern Viet Nam, people like to play Bau Cua. This is how the game is played. You put money on one picture or as many as you like. The dealer would shake three cubes with six animal pictures on them, but only three will appear when he opens the cover. If you are lucky, your money will land on one, two or all three pictures, and the dealer would have to pay you. If not then you would lose and try to guess again and hope for better luck.
It is the year of the pig. This woodblock painting was done by the Dong Ho Village handicraft people in northern Viet Nam. The pig is eating a sweet potato plant.
Loc is a Chinese word for Blessing.
A boy with his chicken.
A boy with his duck.
During Tet people like to buy these beautiful Dong Ho pictures to decorate their houses.
posted by Nga at 12:54 PM
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