We’ve just set off on our first far-away adventure since Covid struck. Rather perversely my thoughts turn to our last big trip, to Vietnam. I somehow didn’t have the heart write about it then. Now I do. So while I gather my thoughts about Madrid, and as we move on to Buenos Aries, I look back on Hanoi with so many good memories. Happy New Year!

Hoi An, Vietnam January 2020

It was an accident that we were in Vietnam during their Lunar New Year. We booked our flights and found out about TET, the mother of all Vietnamese celebrations afterwards. Imagine western Christmas and New Year celebrations rolled into one. It’s a time for families, large meals, lots of drinking, and chaos.

The actual date was January 25th, but that was more fluid than melted ice-cream running down a bare arm on a hot sunny day. ‘If you’re not confused you don’t know what’s going on’, Neville from ‘Original Taste of Hoi An’ told us. Warnings were dire – transport gridlocked to accommodate a population on the move to get back to family in home-towns; a country in lock-down as businesses, markets and restaurants closed down. We read that ATM’s would be stocked but might run out of money, to book a home-stay with a kitchen, and that the holiday would be boring for westerners, who would have nowhere to go and nothing to do.

We arrived in Hoi An on January 18th. One week before the big day. The streets were awash with flowers. Yellow and orange marigolds. Kumquat trees. Big blooms. Huge pots. Serious horticulture. Vendors from the countryside slept next to their plants on the pavements. We spotted camp beds, rolled-back blankets, deck-chairs. Faces peeping out from amongst the flowers. Carts and trolleys hooked to motorbikes zoomed flora from one side of the city to the other. Traffic slowed and stalled as families choose their plants and yet more greenery was loaded, unloaded, tended, watered, and transported. All of this to make the home as beautiful as possible.

Cleaning fever mounted. Everyone was sweeping. Rooms were emptied of furniture which was hosed down and scrubbed with sudsy soap powder. Doors were spray painted, fences and outside walls given a lick of a new colour. TET is a time to curry favour with the Kitchen Gods who take care of all household affairs. This is the time they leave the kitchen and fly off on their carp to report on the doings of the household to the Jade Emperor.

It’s also a time to remember the ancestors. Graves are tended, portraits garlanded, offerings made to invite them to join the holiday fun; small tables stacked with incense, thin coils of perfumed smoke rising, fruits, and foods – cans of Tiger beer, sacrificial chickens, cigarettes, paper money and gifts.

Superstition plays a large part in TET. It’s not just about cleaning the house, it’s about putting your house in order. Time for a new start. Debts are paid (burglaries increase as a result!), grievances forgotten, squabbles settled. The first visit of New Years Day is carefully orchestrated as what happens on the first day of the year sets the tone for the rest of it. All exchanges should be kept light and happy – we were told don’t argue with anyone, don’t wear white, don’t window shop. Lady Luck needs to be kept on side.
It was all joyous. Everyone seemed happy. The market got busier and busier; the bags of shopping on motorbikes larger and larger. When we cycled in Cam Kim island, three men invited Jim to drink with them. Kumquat trees were decorated with red hangers. In the evenings the karaoke got louder and louder.

Finally, the day dawned. The time for cleaning was over. No-one wants to sweep luck out of the house. The temples were full to bursting. Everyone dressed in their new, best clothes. But ultimately TET is about family – and who will be visited when. The first day is reserved for immediate family and parents. The second for close family and relatives. The third for old teachers. The fourth and every day thereafter is about friends and fun, drinking, noise and laughter.

There was inconvenience. Restaurants that had claimed they’d stay open were shut, stated opening times were ignored, and every business was a law unto itself. Employees went home, some never to return. Their parents find them a better job or even a marriage partner. Some businesses now pay out end of year bonuses after TET to give their workers an incentive to come back. We were sipping on our coffees one morning post TET, when whoops of joy broke out among the staff. They’d just been given their lucky red envelopes, and for a while at least were well-off.

TET – a happy bubble, needs time to be enjoyed.