midweek gems #19

translating Tet traditions for modern lives

Hello Year of the Wood Snake!

Yesterday, January 29, was the first day of the Lunar New Year. In Vietnamese we refer to the celebration as Tết Nguyên Đán (節元旦, jié yuándàn in Mandarin Chinese), which means “Festival of the First Day.” For people who celebrate the Lunar New Year traditions — basically cultures and societies that were influenced by China, the first day is the most important.

In the past, you’d walk across the way in your village to pay respects to the eldest people in your family. In 2025, that’s done via texts, phone calls, and social media. And for me, family means my blood relatives (my mom and siblings) plus my closest pals — people I regularly text or talk to.

The second day of the Lunar New Year is to wish Tet wishes to friends you like to hang with. I consider the PTFS community to be that! So here I am.

From my family to yours,
we wish you and your family a
most wonderful year filled with
solid health, satisfaction, and prosperity.

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới! Vạn Sự Như Ý!

(Happy New Year! May You Receive all Your Wishes!

So how did I spend Tết Nguyên Đán?

On Tet eve, I cleaned my kitchen. The Kitchen God sends a report to Heaven and I didn’t want a bad one. Plus I wanted the first day of the new year to be one of peace and harmony, which meant the kitchen needed to be in order and the floor to be clean.

💎 Bright colors and goofiness

Here are a few highlights from texts my family and friends shared. Doctor Mike, who is en route to a medical mission, sent these videos from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam so we can see how modern Viet people do it up these days! (Red is a lucky color, as you see in a number of Tet outfits.)

This morning, I snapped these photos of my decorations at home to Chúc Tết (send Tet wishes). Goofy and sweet. Tet is a time for plush toys, gaiety, and giggles. Silly fun but I love it!

When we were in Honolulu, Rory and I bought the cutesy snakes and dragon from Chinatown. Snakes are sometimes called small dragons. The lady at the store told me that the green dragon was for money. I’m all in! I picked the flowers from our garden this morning. It’s been chilly at night but this flower always manages to bloom and release its fragrance every year.

My food stylist pal, Karen, who always finds the best GIPHYs, sent this along. The snakes are knitted, which got me thinking that if they were made of wool, this would be the Year of the WOOL Snake instead of the WOOD Snake. (I think you can right-click to download and share the goofy GIPHY!)

💎 My 2025 Tet table

We had a simple lunch — mom’s bánh chưng (“bann choong”, Tet sticky rice cake), my pickled shallots, and a green mango, beet, and herb salad (my meatless take on green mango salad; the recipe is in Ever-Green Vietnamese). Then we had tea, fruit and my mom’s candied kumquats. Because some of these Tet treats came from my mom, it was like we were celebrating together.

Green mango is unripe and you can see that the flesh of mine was pale yellow, which was fine because it was still crunchy in the salad. The beets are raw and soften in the lime-fish sauce dressing. Those shallots are about 1 year old. It's true. They still tasted good. I was very surprised!

And what’s the brown stuff in the bowl? It’s brown sugar. Viet people eat bánh chưng with a smidgen of sugar. This year I switched to brown sugar and like it more than white sugar.

My mom’s bánh chưng is pretty glorious. The filling inside is buttery mung bean and pork seasoned with salt, pepper and fish sauce. Yup, that’s it. Yup, it’s delectable. The green color is from the banana leaf.

If you celebrated Lunar New Year, what did you do?

💎 What is the Year of the Snake all about?

The snake year comes around only once every twelve years so I always have to brush up on all the details and meanings. Plus what’s this wood snake thing all about? Here’s a good read from the University of Sydney by Xiaohuan Zhao, a professor of Chinese literature and theater: The meaning of the Year of the Snake.

Professor Zhao covers general info on Lunar New Year but more interesting are his tidbits on lucky symbols and cultural taboos.

Speaking of taboos, one of the taboos of the first day of the Lunar New Year is that you’re not suppose to work. But when I sat down to write this dispatch to you, I didn’t consider it work!

I’ll be back on Sunday with a sticky rice recipe that Vivienne got me thinking about.