Tết – Vietnamese New Year 2016 — Year of the Monkey

The most popular festival of the year in Vietnam is called Tết, celebrated on the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, sometime between late January and early February. Each year our Vietnamese community hosts a parish celebration of the New Year, with a special New Year’s Mass, followed by dinner and entertainment.

The Vietnamese people believe that the quality of their Tết observance and the events that occur during the celebration foreshadow the quality of the year to come. Preparations begin well in advance of the festival. People clean their homes, pay off debts, and resolve old arguments. Gifts are exchanged and children receive small red envelopes containing “lucky money.”

The traditional colors of the celebration are red and yellow, believed to bring good fortune. Tết is unlike any single Western holiday, but a fusion of the American Thanksgiving and Christmas – in a traditional month-long celebration of prosperity, spring, rebirth, and familial ancestry.

New Year’s Mass

New Year’s Mass

New Year’s Mass — Presentation of the Gifts

New Year’s Mass — Celebrants

New Year’s Mass — Musicians and Choir

New Year’s Mass — Communion

Dinner, Entertainment, and Fun for All

Dinner, Entertainment, and Fun for All

Dinner, Entertainment, and Fun for All

Dinner, Entertainment, and Fun for All

Dinner, Entertainment, and Fun for All

Dinner, Entertainment, and Fun for All

Dinner, Entertainment, and Fun for All

Photography

Brandon Phan

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