With the concept of “sending out the old and welcoming the new” to welcome a new year filled with luck, every time Tet comes, Vietnamese people are busy cleaning and decorating their houses. This has become a beautiful traditional cultural feature of many generations of Vietnamese people.
Many children get to experience cleaning the house with their parents...
Because of the busy year-end work, every year, Mr. Nguyen Van Phuong (Thanh Hoa City) and his wife only complete the task of cleaning and decorating the house to welcome Tet just before Tet. This year, to decorate the house early, Mr. Phuong's family planned to clean from the full moon of the twelfth lunar month. Mr. Phuong shared: "When I was young, my siblings and I often cleaned windows and swept the house with my parents. Although I couldn't do much, I still remember the feeling of the whole family gathering together to do housework. Therefore, every time Tet comes, despite being busy with work, my wife, children and I still clean and decorate the house together. I am in charge of cleaning the ceiling, cleaning the doors, and cleaning the floor. My wife and two daughters decorate the house. My two children are always eager to go shopping and come home to decorate the house for Tet."
Busy with work until the days before Tet, Ms. Le Thi Huong (Thanh Hoa City) always takes advantage of her free time at the end of the day to clean her house. On the days before Tet, Ms. Huong starts decorating her house with flower pots, bonsai, peach trees or Tet decor. Ms. Huong shared: “Near Tet, I always clean and maintain a clean house, remove old objects, replace new sheets, pillows, brighten up tables, chairs, and household items to have a fresh, clean space to welcome Tet, and welcome spring fortune into the house. In addition, in recent years, creating a Tet corner in the house with red cloth, banh chung decoration, and parallel sentences has become popular, so I have also created a Tet corner for my house”.
... and decorate the Tet space in the house.
According to Vietnamese beliefs, cleaning and decorating the house on Tet holiday is very important. It is to remove the bad and old things of the old year to welcome the new, lucky and beautiful things of the new year. Vietnamese people always believe that a clean and tidy house on Tet holiday will bring good luck for a year of prosperity, abundance, wealth and everything as desired. Not only that, cleaning and decorating the house is also an opportunity for family members to do housework together, creating a warm and cozy atmosphere.
Cleaning and decorating the house is often done by many families after the ceremony to send the Kitchen Gods to heaven. Everyone, every household will clean up neatly, inside and outside the house; many houses will also be "dressed in new clothes", tables, chairs, and household items will be cleaned and rearranged. The house cleaning will be completed on the 29th and 30th of Tet to "send out the old, welcome the new".
In recent years, in addition to cleaning and decorating the house with flowers and ornamental plants, many families also choose to decorate with traditional items such as lanterns, paper fans, bamboo fans, bamboo trays, conical hats, banh chung models, bamboo blinds, parallel sentences... to hang on the walls, doors, or decorate a corner of the old Tet space in the house, thereby contributing to educating family members about the cultural beauty of Tet.
In addition to cleaning and decorating the house before Tet, Vietnamese people also pay great attention to cleaning and arranging the altar to welcome their ancestors to reside in a clean, fragrant, and tidy "house" to celebrate Tet with their children and grandchildren. This action shows the children's respect for their ancestors - a cultural belief of Vietnamese people that has been preserved for many generations.
Lunar New Year is approaching, everyone wants their house to be decorated and cozy. Everyone has their own idea to renovate their house, but everyone wants to create a fresh, bright space to welcome Tet, to welcome good things in the new year of At Ty 2025.
Quynh Chi
Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/truyen-thong-don-dep-trang-tri-nha-cua-don-tet-238029.htm
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