A Study of Vietnamese Festival Tết Nguyên Đán From Perspectives of Anthropology

Abstract

Vietnam lies in the east side of Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia bordering China in the North, and Laos and Cambodia in the West. Like the Chinese, Vietnamese have lots of festivals. Among them, the most important one is the Tết Nguyên Đán or the Spring Festival, which celebrates the end of an old year and the coming of a new year. Many traditional rituals and practices during the Tết Nguyên Đán in Vietnam are embodied with cultural symbols that deserve anthropological interpretation and analysis. The rapid globalization process and transformation that Vietnam is going through might have impacts on Vietnamese cultural traditions related to the Tết Nguyên Đán.