The celebrations of life are vital marks of each new stage
of our lives. The Lunar New Year (Tết) in Vietnam is surrounded by numerous
traditional activities that provide comfort and continuity, reassurance,
connection to the past and the future, and also meaningful instruction.
Sometimes the latter purposes may seem flawed or out of date with today’s
needs. But they may also be ways of teaching important eternal truths that need
to be remembered in the New Year. Whatever their original origins, one may find
nuggets of truth amid the traditional thoughts, rituals, and activities of
Lunar New Year. Here are some musings on how these common traditions may
connect in a deeper sense to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Pay your debts, be reconciled with your neighbor. The
new year celebration is intended to be a time of clean thoughts, good fortune
and hopes for prosperity. That is best done by resolving all concerns with
others. So the time prior to Tết is well spent reviewing any relationships that need to be amended, debts that need to be retired, and mis-deeds that need correction. Of course it can also lead to many social connection demands to ensure that everyone is happy and set for future good dealings, which at times leads to a very tight schedule.
Jesus said to the Nephites, “If ye shall come unto me, or shall desire
to come unto me, and rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee—Go
thy way unto thy brother, and first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come
unto me with full purpose of heart, and I will receive you. In preparing to
enter the new year, the ancient Israelites, symbolically took a “scapegoat” and
put on him all the unintended wrongs that might have been accrued during the
year and before the new year came, drove the goat away into the wilderness,
symbolically absolving even those unintended wrongs that might have occurred in
the community. This and other “Day of Atonement” celebrations just prior to the
beginning of the new year also typify the desire to be reconciled to God with
the advent of a new time period. This is a righteous desire.
Clear out the dirt and dust from the home. Similar to
the notion of resolving debts is the sense of wanting things to be clean as we
enter a new period. New paint, newly washed windows, and freshened fixtures are
a part of this desire to put aside the grime of the past so that we can enter
the new year with cleanliness. We know now that the window washing on our building will occur in this pre-Tết period each year and that the burnt-offering urns outside an apartment are likely to get new paint at this time.
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| Somewhere in the clouds are the window washers! |
This tradition also has correlates in the Jewish
new year (Yom Kippur) celebrations, and in western traditions of “spring
cleaning.” Spiritually as well, we may begin a new month with fasting, a new
week with the sacramental cleansing and reccommitment spiritually, and a new
year with new resolves to do better. ”Put aside the things of this world and
seek for the things of a better” we are admonished.
Put in store enough food and supplies for visitors and
family. We make bánh chưng, and other special dishes that can be brought
out to share the new year’s wishes and provide enough for our guests. This is
more than just a 72-hour kit, though it might be a good time to evaluate
whether one had those supplies, but fits more with the admonitions to have
enough and to spare, to lay aside enough for a period of scarcity, even if that
is just the closure of the markets for a holiday.
Not unlike the need for people to build into their lives a time to check the batteries in the smoke alarms (daylight savings time, right?) or to check whether the phone has minutes enough for the weekend, or the tank is full of gas before a trip, the reminder to pause and assess our readiness to serve others is a noble one. I admire the missionaries who have their backpacks filled with emergency supplies as well as religious materials, just in case they chance upon a scene requiring their service. The Scout motto to "Be Prepared" is the affirmative action admonished by Amulek in the Book of Mormon to "not procrastinate the day of your repentance!"
Place a new saying on your doorposts. While this
habit is more common in China than Vietnam, we still see it in various
situations, often just as a good wish for the new year. Some of these are
well-worn wise sayings, while sometimes they are the sincere creation of a new
heart. "An Khang Thịnh Vượng" (contentment and prosperity) "Mọi Sự Như Ý" (all things according to your wishes) "Luôn Luôn Trẻ Đẹp" (forever youthful and beautiful) "Tăng Phúc Tăng Thọ" (Added blessings and Added longevity) and similar good wishes become the spoken and written hopes we express for one another, and the coming time.
In the scriptures, the Lord admonished the ancient Israelites to ponder
on his words frequently, when they came in and when they went out, to write
them upon the lintels and doorposts of their homes, a habit that is still
practiced in some more strict Jewish homes today. Compare this passage in
Deuteronomy 11:18-20 “Therefore shall you lay up these words in your heart and
your soul…and ye shall teach them to your children…and thou shalt write them
upon the door posts of thine house, and upon they gates.”
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| The bank would like you to "breakthrough" your limitations in the new year. |
Bring new blossoms into your home, Peach in the north,
and Hoa Mai in the south. This tradition seems to remind us that the new
year is a time nearing to spring. The blossoms on a fruit tree foretell the
plentiful harvest ahead, and the new blossoms remind us that from the seemingly
lifeless winter past will spring forth new life.
This is likewise an Easter symbol, like
the lilies that are used in western symbolism. And while the Jewish new year
was in the fall, the Passover festival was in the spring and very clearly a
time for preparing for planting, as is often the case with areas in Vietnam
where planting begins after Tet.
A related custom is to bring a new, richly laden Kumquat tree into your home, or especially into your business. The fruits are bright orange and sufficiently sour to not be eaten, perhaps reminding one to keep in store one's prosperity for the long haul ahead.
Prepare to give or receive “Lucky Money.” This
delightful tradition is a means for parents to bless their children, for
grandparents to express their feelings and wishes for their posterity, and for
older people in general to make tangible their wishes for the new year. Most
often it comes in a red envelope, further reinforcing the color red as bringing
good fortune in this society. It is given unconditionally, a manifestation of
what should be a love without requisites.
The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us
that “we love him, because he first loved us” or in other words, God’s love for
us, manifest most tangibly in the redeeming blood of a Savior Jesus Christ, was
given without any sense of our having earned it. “For God so loved the world (us)
that he gave his only Begotten son.”
Return home and gather with family, reconnect and renew
relations. This is a theme throughout this holiday, and crosses
generations, and the boundaries of death as we seek to remember and attend to
those who have been before us on earth. This is one of the most pervasive, and strongest, traditions of the holiday, despite the desire of tour and travel companies to exploit the "vacation" time for more commercial purposes. Graves are often cleaned and attended to prior to the holiday so that gatherings there on the new year, traditionally day 2, can be propitious.
The gathering of God’s family from the
four corners of the earth is a repeated theme in prophetic writings and in the
narrative of world history, as well as the growth of his Church, which itself
is seen as a gathering into his fold. Many members experience their entry into
the church as a sense of coming home. When we gather we enjoy “communion” with
each other, and learn more of our role in the family, whether that is the
divine family of God, or our own nuclear group family. Likewise gathering our family history, remembering and honoring those who have gone before by attending to their need for saving gospel ordinances, among other things, "else why are they baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all?" as Paul asked, is a truth that spans cultures and centuries, wisely shared in recognition of the ultimate gathering of all the family of God into the covenants of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Light some firecrackers to disperse any evil spirits
looking to influence your luck in the new year. While many cultures have
the concept of evil spirits who can make life difficult, the ways of warding
them off may vary. Spells, mirrors, particular plants, potions, sacrificial
appeasements and firecrackers could all be included in that list, with probably
several others.
But the New Testament parable told by Jesus Christ probably
speaks in a more meaningful way, tying this tradition with that of cleaning
house prior to the new year, and providing instruction implicitly, on how to
best keep evil from re-entering one’s life. In Matthew 12, we read, “When the
unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest,
and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came
out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept and garnished. Then he
goeth and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and
they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the
first…” One might say that having abandoned bad habits, addictions, or sins
then, if we do not fill up our house with good things, the evils of the past
and worse may overwhelm us, firecrackers or not.
Release a fish on behalf of the Kitchen God to carry a good report to the Jade King. We have commented on this practice before, often seen in the week prior to Tet, of releasing into the wild a small fish, most often a goldfish, to symbolize the desire for a good report to be made to the great Judge, the Jade Emperor and thus ensure favorable blessings on the household as a whole.
This again is highly suggestive of the notion that we are accountable before a great and Divine Judge, which in our scriptures, can only be Jesus Christ, "who employeth no servant" at the gates of judgement. He is a grand Mediator between man and the Eternal King of Heaven and Earth. Our offerings to him, instructed to be today not of flesh or other animal, but a "broken heart and a contrite spirit" willing to do His will, are influential in procuring the blessings of his kingdom on our house and household.
Symbols and rituals teach us in important ways that words or
simple exhortation often do not. If we have eyes to see and hearts to
understand, we can see the lessons of the atonement, the promise of eternal
life, the reality of the resurrection, judgement, and the eternal importance of
the family and living in harmony in the symbols and rituals, the traditions and
the customs of Tet Nguyen Dan.
