Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

  Hue, Vietnam
Friday, February 13, 2009

Eating sizable portions of turkey and stuffing, watching NFL football games, and hanging out with family are typical traditions of Thanksgiving in the States. A related holiday occurs in Vietnam in late January and I had the fortunate opportunity to partake in all of its festivities...whether I wanted to or not...

The Tet Festival in Vietnam is traditionally a 3-day celebration of the New Year, which is the same dates as the Chinese New Year.

House where I stayed for 4 nights

Most Vietnamese take work off for the 3 days and visit their family, but the celebrations start way before that and end, well whenever they feel like it. I thought about going to Saigon for the holiday, but didn't make it that far. When Martin and I stepped out of the train and walked towards the center of Hue, we definitely did not expect a hotel rep on the street to invite us to his tiny village for the Tet holiday after a minute of trying to convince us to stay at his hotel. Not only did we stay at his hotel in Hue, but we also accepted his invitation to his village to celebrate Tet with his family and friends for 4 days. Martin is a German traveler I met on the overnight train from Nimh Binh and was just as open-minded as me, if not more. We both agreed that if we didn't go to the village, we would never know what it would be like to celebrate Tet with a whole village of non-English speaking Vietnamese.

The family aspect of Tet coincided with Thanksgiving, as I was introduced to countless family members and and had no idea who was a cousin and who was a sibling.

Martin and Thanh

The amount of food also reminded of Thanksgiving, but not so much the type of food. The turkey was replaced with endless chunks of water buffalo, the stuffing was replaced with bowls and bowls of steamed rice and for social reasons, there were always these tiny, un-shelled nuts that were impossibly to open, but somehow occupied hours of our time. The family whom Martin and I stayed with were the warmest, most hospitable people I met in Vietnam and made sure we were happy and fed for our whole stay.

Neighbors house

They were pretty poor, so we ate a lot of the same food for 4 days, but most of it was delicious and it put a huge smile on the mothers face to see us devouring it. They were so happy that we came to their village, it almost meant more to them to have foreigners visit than their own family. For example, at 11:50pm before New Years Day, Martin and I were instructed to leave the house and return to the house after midnight. Apparently, inviting two foreigners into their house as the first guests of the New Year brings them good luck for the year, so we were happy to play along.

As honorary guests of the village, Martin and I felt we had to partake in every festivity that took place. Little did we know that this included drinking endless amounts of rice wine/fruit wine shots and wild dance parties at 9am. I was awakened the first day of Tet at 7am to the sound of booming speakers, blasting what appeared to be an American techno/dance mix, which would be set to "REPEAT" for four days straight. Having no choice but to get up and start the day, the youngest son of the house, Thanh, told us that we were going to visit 10 different houses around the village and hang out with friends and family.

Hai

This basically entailed a group of 20 young guys going on a "pub crawl" around the neighborhood, pounding unlimited shots, meeting more friends and family, and dancing to the same dance club mix over and over again. My favorite person was their 90-year-old grandfather who could barely walk, but was smoking a long pipe and smiling for literally 4 days straight.

Dance party at 9am...

For New Years Eve, we went to a community center like building for the main event, where the whole village converged and of course I was forced into singing karaoke. As long as I was singing something and dancing around a little bit, they were all entertained. If I didn't know how to say "Happy New Year" in Vietnamese before I went to the village, I definitely would have learned quickly. If I wanted to opt out of attempting a conversation in Vietnamese with a random family member, all I needed to do was raise my glass and yell "Chuc Mung Nam Moi!"

After 4 days of trying to sleep on a floor, partying all day and all night and eating the same food, I was ready to leave, but sad because I left like I got very close to the family. Thanh told me that his family was very upset that I was leaving but understood that I couldn't stay forever. I would love to return to the village one day. Canh, the middle brother is my couch-surfing friend, so we stay in touch.

Back in Hue, the mood of Tet was still joyous. I hired a bike for the day and set off to the beach about 10 miles away, only to be stopped outside of town by a family on the street who invited into their home and gave me food and beer. Talk about deja vu. The father, a war-veteran, sat me down in his living room and talked to me about how much he loves America and desperately wanted me to meet his 27-year-old daughter. After showing me his church and school around the corner, he insisted we go to the hair salon where she works and give her my email, but I haven't heard anything from her yet...

Next Stop: Da Nang and China Beach