Happy Lunar New Year!!!

"Tết Tết Tết Tết đến rồi
Tết Tết Tết Tết đến rồi
Tết Tết Tết Tết đến rồi
Tết đến trong tim mọi người..."
- a Vietnamese song "Mùa xuân ơi" that brings up the feeling of coming Home to the family in the New Year festival. "Dù đi đâu ai cũng nhớ, về chung vui bên gia đình". The "Tết" festival is coming right outside the door, in the heart of all people.. -

In China and Vietnam we celebrate New Year according to the Lunar calendar. Today is the first day of the New Year: "Chúc mừng Năm Mới" - Happy Lunar New Year, everyone! Wish you warm feelings of happiness and laughters throughout this Year of the Snake!!!

"Hoa đào đón Tết" - our traditional cherry flower in the "Tết" festival in the North of Vietnam, in the South there're "hoa mai". "Ngày Tết đến phố xá đông vui, người đi thăm đi viếng đi chơi, người ta đi mua sắm Tết..."

In this entry are some photos about the "Tết" festival in my hometown Hanoi just about one or two weeks before the celebration. Many people go to a flower market and buy the traditional flowers and plants for the decoration at their home. The presence of these traditional flowers already indicate "Tết" in the family. The photos I have taken in the year 2009, when I was at that time still working in Singapore and just came home for a short holiday during the "Tết" (only now when living so far away from Home that I got a little more appreciation for the time I lived in Singapore in which it was convenient to fly back to Hanoi). So in 2009, in the mood for a "slide of Tết's atmosphere", a friend of mine and I walked around the streets and a flower market in the Old Quarter near the central Hoan Kiem lake, to appreciate the warm feelings of our "Tết" all in the cold air, in the crowded streets, the noisy sound and hurry of people selling and buying plenty of different colourful decoration things, "Tết" in the smile of an old lady who got for herself those spring flowers, or in the true happiness of a young guy having in his both hands a little "Tết".. and much more...

"Nghe âm vang bao câu chúc yên lành
Đất nước gấm hoa yên ấm an vui.."

Traditional "hoa đào và cây quất ngày Tết" - spring flower and tangerine plant

Spring smile.. She must probably have thought of her own little happiness (the spring comes or perhaps love?) that brightened up her charming smile!

She has said to me: "Ôi con bé này rỗi việc hay sao mà đi chụp ảnh bà già này" then she made a simple so joyfol laughter! Her reaction was so warm, that brought a smile into the little girl's face. Not many people expected how happy that girl was to get a warm feeling of "Tết" and hometown..

A little warm joy of "Tết" festival..

Cherry flowers in "Tết" market

A typical "nhà tập thể" - residential building around my house at Home, I kind of miss seeing those old houses 'dressing' themselves up with our little red flag during the "Tết" festival.. also the bare branches of trees in the typical cold "se se lạnh" weather..

"Ngõ nhỏ phố nhỏ nhà tôi ở đó..!" ..Những ngõ nhỏ dài hun hút dây điện chập chằng nhà ống lấn nhà tô điểm mình với lá cờ ngày Tết - typical tube houses in my hometown with our national flag in the "Tết" festival

Spring joy

"Xuân, xuân ơi! Xuân đến rồi
Cánh én bay về cho tim mình nao nức..
Xuân, xuân ơi! Xuân đã về
Kính chúc muôn nhà gặp nhiều an vui!"
- "Mùa xuân ơi!", Nguyễn Ngọc Thiện -

Happy Lunar New Year 10.02.2013!