For a nation of farmers attached to the land for millennia, it has always been a festival marking the communion of man with nature. In the flow of seasons it is a pause during which both the field and the tiller enjoy some rest after twelve months of labor. In this period of universal renewal the Vietnamese man feels surging within himself a fountain of youth. For three days, one takes extra care not to show anger and not to be rude to people. When the holiday ends, people will resume their activities in a new spirit following so-called opening rituals in which the ploughman will open the first furrow, the official applies his seal to the first document, the scholar trace the first character with his pen brush, the trader receives his first customer.
Children vow to be well-behaved and are often given gifts of cash wrapped in red paper.
Several times a day, joss-sticks are lit on the family altar and offerings made of food, fresh water, flowers and betel. The Vietnamese Tet is an occasion for an entire people to share a common ideal of peace, concord and mutual love. I know of no communal celebration with more humanistic character. It is a day for cleaning of the ancestor's gravesides and tombs, time for tidying up the graves. People from Hanoi travel to the countryside cemeteries to place fresh earth on the graves, pull weeds, replant flowers and repaint the tombs.