Lunar New Year's Eve

Giao thừa means the old hands over and the new takes up, the instant when the old year passes the baton to the new one. It is reckoned in the hour of the Rat, from 11 pm on the last night of the twelfth month to 1 am on the first day of Tết, centred on midnight itself. When the twelfth month has only 29 days, giao thừa falls on the 29th, yet people still call it the night of the thirtieth.

The offering made at this time is called trừ tịch. Trừ means to remove and tịch means night, so trừ tịch is the night of casting away, leaving behind the misfortunes of the old year. In his book Việt Nam phong tục, the scholar Phan Kế Bính recorded the trừ tịch offering as a familiar rite in every Vietnamese household on the last night of the year.

In folk belief, each year has a governing deity, the Hành khiển, who oversees human affairs on behalf of the Jade Emperor, accompanied by a military deity and a judge. Twelve such deities take turns according to the twelve zodiac animals, so New Year's Eve is also when the deity of the old year hands over to the deity of the new one somewhere along the heavenly road.

Because the gods are passing by, the midnight offering is placed outdoors, in the yard, before the door or on a balcony. The family sees off the old deity with thanks for a year of protection and welcomes the new one, praying for a peaceful year. The tray usually holds a boiled rooster, sticky rice or bánh chưng, incense, flowers, rice wine, betel and a paper hat and robe for the new deity.

After the outdoor rite, the head of the family lights incense at the ancestral altar. Since the afternoon of the thirtieth many families have invited their forebears home to share Tết, so the indoor rite tells the ancestors that the new year has come. The altar has been cleaned beforehand, with a five-fruit tray, a pair of bánh chưng, a peach or apricot branch and candles burning all night.

A few hours earlier comes the year-end dinner, the fullest family table of the year. People working far away try to make it home in time, even on the last bus of the night. After midnight the young offer the first greetings of the year to grandparents and parents, elders give lucky money to the children, and everyone stays up a little longer talking about the year gone and the year to come.

In the past, the crack of firecrackers at midnight was an essential sound of Tết, believed to chase away evil spirits and wake the spring. Because firecrackers caused many accidents, on 8 August 1994 the Prime Minister issued Directive 406/CT-TTg banning their production, sale and use, effective from 1 January 1995.

In place of the strings of crackers came high and low fireworks displays organised by provinces and cities at midnight. Since 2021, Decree 137/2020/NĐ-CP has allowed people to use non-exploding fireworks for holidays, Tết, birthdays and weddings. Many families now greet the new year in the street, on a balcony or by watching live broadcasts of the fireworks.

Right after midnight, many people visit pagodas and temples to pray for peace and bring home a lucky bud. The bud, a young sprig, symbolises growth and abundance in the new year. In recent years pagodas and temples have asked people not to break off branches, offering instead small sprigs, red envelopes or blessing cards handed out by the temple.

The first person to step into the house after midnight is called the first visitor. Folk belief holds that this person's spirit shapes the family's luck for the whole year, so many households invite a cheerful person of a compatible age in advance. If no one is available, the head of the family can go outside at midnight and be the first to step back in.

Generations of Vietnamese remember the years when the whole country listened to President Hồ Chí Minh's New Year poems on the Voice of Vietnam at the stroke of midnight. Today the New Year greetings of the country's leaders are still broadcast on radio and television at that moment, continuing a shared national way of welcoming spring.

For people working far from their hometowns, midnight is often the destination of a long journey home. Those on shift in hospitals, factories, airports or border posts greet the new year at work, with a call home at midnight. Wherever they are, the turning of the year is when Vietnamese people think most about family.

This spring surpasses the springs gone by, news of victory fills the whole country.

Hồ Chí Minh, New Year poem for the spring of 1968