Tết — Vietnamese New Year

What Is Tết?

Tết Nguyên Đán — commonly known simply as Tết — is the Vietnamese Lunar New Year and the most important cultural event in the Vietnamese calendar. The name translates as "Feast of the First Morning of the First Day," reflecting its significance as a moment of absolute renewal. Everything that came before Tết is the old year; everything that follows is the new.

Tết falls on the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, typically between late January and mid-February by the Gregorian calendar. The celebrations officially last three days, though in practice the preparations begin weeks earlier and the festivities continue through the first two weeks of the new lunar month. It is, in many ways, Christmas, New Year's Eve and Easter combined — a total cultural reset in which every Vietnamese person, wherever they are in the world, feels the pull of home.

For the Vietnamese-Australian community — over 300,000 strong — Tết is the moment that most vividly connects the diaspora to Vietnam. Community celebrations, temple visits, family gatherings, traditional foods and the exchange of red envelopes (bao lì xì) happen across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and every Australian city with a Vietnamese community.

The History and Origins of Tết

Tết has been celebrated in Vietnam for over 4,000 years, pre-dating Chinese influence and drawing on indigenous agricultural traditions tied to the rice harvest cycle. The word "Tết" derives from the Sino-Vietnamese "tiết" (節), meaning a period or seasonal division — but the celebration itself is distinctly Vietnamese in character, having absorbed and transformed Chinese, Cham, Khmer and French influences into something entirely its own.

The lunar calendar that governs Tết was adopted from China during the long period of Chinese rule (111 BCE – 938 CE), but Vietnamese Tết differs significantly from Chinese New Year in its specific customs, foods, decorations and spiritual practices. The Vietnamese calendar runs on a 60-year cycle combining the 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches — each year associated with one of 12 animals (the Vietnamese zodiac uses the Cat rather than the Rabbit, unlike the Chinese calendar).

Historically, Tết was the time when farmers completed the harvest, debts were settled, old conflicts were resolved and the slate was wiped clean for a new beginning. These practical origins give Tết its distinctive emotional weight — it is not merely a celebration but a moral event, a time when relationships are repaired, the dead are honoured and the community reaffirms its bonds.

The Traditions of Tết

Dọn Nhà — The Great Cleaning

In the weeks before Tết, Vietnamese households undergo a thorough cleaning — dọn nhà — to sweep away the bad luck of the old year and make space for good fortune in the new. Everything is scrubbed, painted, repaired and renewed. New clothes are bought. Old debts are settled. Conflicts are resolved or at least suspended. The cleaning is both literal and symbolic: entering Tết with a clean house is entering the new year with a clean slate.

Bàn Thờ — The Ancestor Altar

The ancestor altar (bàn thờ) is the spiritual heart of every Vietnamese home. Before Tết, the altar is cleaned, refreshed with new offerings and prepared for the return of the ancestors, who are believed to visit their families during the Tết period. Offerings of fruit, flowers, incense, food and symbolic items are arranged carefully. Ancestor veneration is not merely a ritual — it is a living relationship between the living and the dead, sustained through daily practice and intensified at Tết.

Ông Công, Ông Táo — The Kitchen Gods

On the 23rd day of the last lunar month (approximately one week before Tết), Vietnamese families celebrate the departure of Ông Công and Ông Táo — the Kitchen Gods — who travel to Heaven to report on the family's conduct during the year. The ceremony involves offerings of food, incense and paper goods (burned as symbolic gifts), and sometimes the release of live carp into rivers or ponds to carry the gods on their journey. The Kitchen Gods return on New Year's Eve, and their safe return ensures the family's continued protection in the new year.

Hoa Tết — Tết Flowers

Two flowers define the visual identity of Tết, each associated with a different part of Vietnam. In the South, the yellow mai blossom (hoa mai, Ochna integerrima) is the Tết flower — its five golden petals symbolise happiness, longevity, prosperity, peace and good luck. In the North, the pink peach blossom (hoa đào) plays the equivalent role, its blossoming timing perfectly aligned with the lunar new year. Families spend significant sums on Tết flowers, and the great flower markets that spring up in Vietnamese cities in the weeks before Tết are among the most beautiful and atmospheric events of the year.

Cây Nêu — The New Year Pole

In rural Vietnam and some urban areas, a bamboo pole (cây nêu) is erected outside homes at the start of Tết. Decorated with red cloth, wind chimes, clay fish and other items, the pole marks the household as protected during the vulnerable period of transition between years, when evil spirits are believed to be particularly active.

Bao Lì Xì — Red Envelopes

The exchange of red envelopes containing money (bao lì xì, or phong bì đỏ) is one of Tết's most beloved traditions. Adults give red envelopes to children and unmarried young people as gifts of good luck for the new year. The amount inside is less important than the gesture — the red colour symbolises good fortune and wards off evil. In Vietnamese-Australian communities, red envelopes are exchanged at family gatherings, community celebrations and temple visits throughout the Tết period.

Tết Food: The Feast of Renewal

Food is central to every aspect of Tết. The days before Tết involve intensive cooking, with families preparing dishes that will be shared with ancestors (offered on the altar) and living relatives (shared at the feast). Many Tết foods carry specific symbolic meanings embedded in their names, appearance or ingredients.

Tết in Australia

The Vietnamese-Australian community has maintained Tết as a living cultural practice across generations since the first wave of Vietnamese refugees arrived in the late 1970s. Today, Tết is celebrated across Australia in ways that blend Vietnamese tradition with Australian context.

In Sydney, the Tết Festival in Cabramatta — the heart of the Vietnamese-Australian community in NSW — is the largest Tết celebration outside Vietnam, drawing tens of thousands of visitors. Melbourne's Tết Festival in Victoria draws similarly large crowds. Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Canberra all host community Tết celebrations organised by Vietnamese associations, temples and community groups.

For Australians without Vietnamese heritage, Tết offers a genuine window into Vietnamese culture and community. Attending a public Tết celebration — watching the lion dances, tasting bánh chưng, receiving a red envelope — is one of the most vivid ways to understand what Vietnamese culture values and how it expresses those values.