Life's NO Secret #26 | Preparation of TET, a Vietnamese Lunar New Year

The Vietnamese Lunar New Year is just a few days away. The actual day is on the 12th February but the Government had announced that its nation's holiday starts from 10th till 16th February. This is the longest holiday ever in Vietnam and everyone looks forward to this festival. Family would gather from far and near to celebrate together. Food and drinks would be served endlessly from day to night for days. One thing for sure, it's a tiresome task for the Chef of the House. Not to mention, the bartender has an unlimited supply of beers and homemade herbal wine to serve it's guest. I used to think that Indians were the best drinkers. Boy! How wrong was I.. The Vietnamese can out beat the Indians anytime.

TET candies and MUST serve local delicacies are made or bought to serve to families and friends who come to visit during this festive seasons. And since the arrival of the pandemic 12 months ago, what used to be norm traditions of celebrating TET have changed to a slightly more careful version. Travelling overseas for their annual trip have totally stopped though going back to their hometowns have not. Millions of Vietnamese have started to travel either by land or air back to their hometowns to visit family members. And no one goes home empty handed. It is in any Asian families tradition to bring gifts home especially during TET. Somehow, it's a way of wishing the HOST a blessed Lunar Year New.

For some large organisations, they too practice the same traditions for their employees by giving them a little something for TET. It could be candies, rice, preserved pork sausages, coffee beans and etc. I find this very rare especially from where I come from. It is usually just an Ang Pau or what the locals call as Lixi, red packet with Lucky Money which I would occasionally receive from the company. Then again, I guess different cultures renders differently on how the Lunar New Year is. However, it is, I wouldn't say no to receiving these gifts as it is unwise to reject gifts during the Lunar New Year.

With just days away from everyone celebrating TET, I do wish that everyone is safe too. We cannot afford to have another outburst of new community cases after the Lunar New Year is over.

Life's NO Secret is all about sharing; and it can be anything at all. Be it related to health, wealth, lifestyle or education. Sometimes, secrets are not really secrets. It's just that people don't talk about it or it's just been put aside until it becomes a topic to B****** about it. It could be anything under the sun; good, silly, fun, stupid or bad to some extend.

Life's NO Secret is an inspiration of my own in which I hope to share with all of you. NO Secrets means NO Lies. Just plain simple facts.