Tet

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from Vietnamese
This word originated in Vietnam

Since 1885, speakers of English have known about the biggest annual celebration in Vietnam. In a book called France and Tongking: A Narrative of the Campaign of 1884, published in London that year, Sir James George Scott wrote: "The especial great season for every one, rich and poor, is the new year, the Tet."

Tet starts in January or February at the time of the full moon before spring planting. Officially it lasts three days, but since advance preparations are important, it often requires a week or more away from everyday activities like school and work. Houses are cleaned (so that the Kitchen God can give an approving report to the Jade Emperor) and decorated with gold banners, red ribbons, and colored lights. Food and wine are placed at the family altar to please the spirits of dead ancestors. The community celebration can include a parade with elaborate floats, and fireworks, song and dance.

It is said that the first visitor on the first day of Tet brings luck, good or bad, so many people take care to invite the right person to make that visit. Whatever happens that first day is said to set the pattern for the whole year.

With close to a million ethnic Vietnamese now living in the United States, Tet is now a more familiar celebration in this country as well.

We also have a grimmer reason to speak of Tet. Just as the first mention of Tet in English was related to the French military conquest of Vietnam in 1884, so the word gained military prominence in English in January 1968 when the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese attacked South Vietnamese cities in what was called the "Tet Offensive." They didn't succeed in overwhelming the South Vietnamese and U.S. forces, nor did they cause a "general uprising" of the southern population, but the Tet Offensive did turn the tide of the war and was a major step toward the ultimate North Vietnamese triumph.

Vietnamese is a Mon-Khmer language of the Austro-Asiatic language family. It has sixty-five million speakers in Vietnam, more than 85 percent of the population, and nearly a million more speakers each in Cambodia and the United States, the final resort of many refugees from the Vietnam War. Although the United States was deeply involved in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, no other words of Vietnamese have managed to become part of the general vocabulary of English.

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January-February; first to seventh days of first lunar month

The Vietnamese New Year, Tet, is an abbreviation for Tet Nguyen Dan, meaning "first day." This is the most important festival of the year, signifying both the beginning of the year and of spring. It's also seen as a precursor of everything that will happen in the coming year, and for that reason, efforts are made to start the year properly with family reunions, paying homage to ancestors, and wiping out debts.

At the start of the festival, the Spirit of the Hearth goes to the abode of the Emperor of Jade to report on family members. The spirit should be in a good frame of mind, so a tree is built of bamboo and red paper to ward off evil spirits. At midnight the New Year and the return of the Spirit of the Hearth are welcomed with firecrackers, gongs, and drums. The festival then continues for a week, with special events on each day. A favorite food of the festival is banh chung, which is made of sticky rice, yellow beans, pig fat, and spices wrapped in leaves and boiled for half a day.

Tet became known worldwide in 1968 for the Tet Offensive of the Vietnam War. The Lunar New Year truce was shattered on Jan. 31 with attacks by North Vietnam and the National Liberation Front against more than 100 South Vietnamese cities. The United States embassy in Saigon was attacked and parts of it held by the Viet Cong for six hours; the headquarters of U.S. Gen. William Westmoreland at Tan Son Nhut Airport outside Saigon was also attacked. The city of Hue was captured. The attacks were repulsed, and the U.S. and South Vietnam claimed victory. But television viewers had seen the ferocity of the attack and the flight of Saigon residents, and the offensive led to increased movements in the United States to end the war.



CONTACTS
Vietnam National Administration of Tourism
80 Quan Su Rd.
Hanoi, Vietnam
84-4-942-1061; fax: 84-4-826-3956
www.vietnamtourism.com/e_pages/news/index.a

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(Vietnam) Lunar new year celebration which in 1968 marked the start of an offensive by the North Vietnameese Army to oust the Americans from Vietnam. While fighting was fierce is was a failure for the Communist forces.

For a list of words related to Tet, see:

• Annual National and Religious Holidays - Tet: Vietnam: New Year, ocurring first new moon after sun enters Aquarius, late January or early February

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