Lunar New Year

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Tết: Vietnamese
Lunar New Year

Name the
Tradition

Worshipping “Ong Cong, Ong Tao”

(Land Genie and Kitchen Gods)

Worshipping “Ong Cong, Ong Tao” (Land Genie
and Kitchen Gods) is a long-standing custom of
great significance as it symbolises the farewell to
all bad things of the old year to help people
relaxedly enter a new year of peace and
happiness.

Tết all kicks off a week before Lunar New Year when
Vietnamese Pray to Ông Táo, The Kitchen God.
Vietnamese folk law says each house has three gods
who protect the family and watch over their behaviour
for the whole year. On the 23rd of the last Lunar month,
the Kitchen God returns to heaven on a Carp (fish) to
report to the Jade Emperor on all of the goings on in
the house. Vietnamese people like to help the kitchen
God on his way by making offerings on their family
shrine and releasing goldfish into nearby lakes, ponds
and rivers.

Golden carps farmed in Thuy Tram village of Tuy Loc commune, Cam Khe
district (Phu Tho province), to serve the worship of the Land Genie and
Kitchen Gods (Photo: VNA)

Buying New Clothes

Vietnamese lucky money

Decorating the House

Wrapping Banh Chung – Chung Cake

Paying Homage to Ancestors

Xong Dat - (first footing)

New Year

I.

Match

Match the following vocabulary.

• to coincide

• to be recorded

• barley

• a commitment

• a host

to happen at the same time

to be written down for future reference

a cereal used for making food or alcohol

a promise to do something

the person or place that provides space

• to happen at the same time

• to be written down for future reference

• a cereal used for making food or alcohol

• a promise to do something

• the person or place that provides space

​'For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.' – TS Eliot

​Traditions that
Live On

Multiple Choice

In __________, New Year's Eve is called Hogmanay and 'first footing' remains a popular custom with people visiting friends' and neighbours' houses just after midnight.

• Ireland

• Scotland

• England

• Wales

Multiple Choice

In ________, it is the custom to eat 12 grapes as the bells sound for midnight on 31 December.

• Portugal

• Brazil

• Costa Rica

• Spain

Multiple Choice

1. In which year January 1st was officially declared as the first day of the New Year?

• 1500

• 2024

• 50 BCE

• 46 BC

Multiple Choice

1. When was New Year celebrated in ancient Rome?

• January 1

• February 1

• March 1

• April 1

Multiple Choice

1. The highest box office sales for a movie shown on a New Year’s Day.

• Matrix

• Titanic

• Avatar

• Jurassic Park

Multiple Choice

1. According to Dutch, eating what on New Year’s day brings good luck?

• baguettes

• donuts

• cookies

• candy

Multiple Choice

1. Who was the first person to declare January 1 as a national holiday?

• Julius Caesar

• Alexander the Great

• Charles VIII

• Ivan IV the terrible

Happy

Lunar New

Year

2024!