11 Ways Tet Is Similar to Christmas

If you ask a Vietnamese person how important Tet (the Lunar New Year) is or what transpires during this time, you may often get a response that sounds something like "it's our Christmas."

After hearing this a few times, I put some thought into it and learned that there are, in fact, quite a number of--albeit incidental or coincidental--similarities between the two holidays.

So, if you're new to the Lunar New Year holiday, here's a chart to help you understand what a Vietnamese friend means when they compare the general nuances of Tet to those of Christmas.

Points of Comparison	Christmas	Tet
Food	Days of eating at various family, friends, and company parties	Couple of days of eating at friends and company parties, more days of eating with family
Tree	Christmas tree is bought or cut and brought inside the house for decoration	Hoa dao or hoa mai is bought or cut and brought inside the house for decoration
Traveling	People "go home for the holidays"	People "di ve que," which means "going back to the hometown"
Family	Families gather and reunite for one or two days	Families gather and reunite for a few days, maybe a couple of weeks
Work	People take one to two weeks of vacation	People take one to three weeks of vacation
Holiday Food Items	Egg nog	Banh Tet
Music	The same Christmas songs are played over and over (and over...)	The same songs about spring returning are played over and over (and over...)
Kids	Kids are showered with gifts	Kids are showered with li xi (red money envelopes)
Weather	North: Cold South: Comfortable	North: Cold South: They might think it's cold, but it's actually just right (for this Seattlite)
Productivity	Little to no work is done	Yeah...not a chance
Group Activities	Caroling, snow-related activities	Watching the lion dance, lighting firecrackers, playing bau cua tom ca

I could go on, but you get the gist of it.

There are plenty of characteristics that differentiate the two holidays, but, by and large, each holiday is the most important respective to their culture and society.

To my Vietnamese friends: Jesse chúc các bạn một năm mới hạnh phúc, sức khỏe, và may mắn!