In ancient times, as a country with strong comprehensive national strength, China also had a strong radiation force for its neighbors. In terms of culture, the use of Chinese characters in countries such as South Korea is quite high, some of the pronunciation of Chinese such as Japan is very similar to Chinese, and countries such as Vietnam obviously borrow from traditional Chinese festivals.
The Spring Festival is one of the most important traditional festivals in China, and Vietnam, as a country that has long been deeply influenced by China, also attaches great importance to the Spring Festival. So what does the Spring Festival in Vietnam look like? Why is it an important festival in Vietnam?
Spring Festival in Vietnam
The Vietnamese Spring Festival is known as "T t C", or Big Festival. "Big" here is the most grand and important meaning. The Vietnamese Spring Festival begins on the 23rd day of the lunar month, on which the Vietnamese sacrifice the Stove King to pray for a safe and smooth next year. On the 24th day of the lunar month, buying firecrackers, meeting parents, cleaning spiritual seats, and sweeping are the four things that Vietnamese people value most. From the 27th to the 30th, dumplings became a collective activity of Vietnamese families. On the 30th, the Vietnamese will plant poles tied with pineapple leaves and other banners in the courtyard to drive away evil spirits.
Chinese New Year's Eve, while offering offerings to the gods and ancestors and offering incense and blessings, the Vietnamese people did not forget to "ask for Lu". What is "Qiulu"? That is, when returning from the temple, the green branches are picked, which means to collect blessings, or distribute fruits to relatives and friends, so as to distribute the blessings to relatives and friends.
From the first to the third day of the first lunar month, Vietnamese people prepare red envelopes and begin to walk the streets to visit the New Year. On the fourth day of the first year, the family eats a reunion dinner and burns paper sacrifices to worship the ancestors.
The four traditional festivals that Vietnam absorbed from China are the Spring Festival, mid-autumn festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Qingming Festival, but only the Spring Festival is considered a legal holiday. The setting of statutory holidays in a country is considered by various factors such as economic, political, and cultural. In contrast, Vietnam's Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival do not have the same obvious functions as the Spring Festival to stimulate the economy, unite people's hearts, and inherit culture, so naturally they are not legal holidays.
Interestingly, the Vietnamese Spring Festival is not only a statutory holiday, but also a growing holiday time. In 1994, the Vietnamese government designated the Spring Festival as a statutory holiday and set aside a four-day holiday period. In 2019, the new regulations stipulate that the Vietnamese Spring Festival holiday is 5 days. But in reality, the Vietnamese Spring Festival holiday is generally longer than the legal time. For example, in 2015, the Vietnamese Spring Festival holiday lasted for 9 days, more than a week. In 2020, the Vietnamese Spring Festival holiday reached 12 days, close to two weeks. It can be seen that in the hearts of Vietnamese people, the Spring Festival is still very important.
Why do Vietnamese people value the Vietnamese Spring Festival so much?
1. The Vietnamese Spring Festival guards the background of Vietnamese culture
The Qin Dynasty set up counties in Vietnam, and the Central Plains immigrants mixed with the Vietnamese. Gradually, the Vietnamese used Chinese characters, revered Confucianism, and lived the customs of Central Plains festivals. After 968, Vietnam became increasingly independent, but still had China as its vassal state. In this case, even if Vietnam has always wanted to de-Sinicize, it is very difficult.
Until now, Vietnamese culture still carries a lot of "Han" culture shadows. The Vietnamese Spring Festival is an important carrier for maintaining the blood relations and hierarchical order of Vietnamese Confucian culture, a cultural product of Vietnam's influence by Han culture, and an empirical evidence that Vietnamese people adhere to the cultural background.
2. The social base is laid by agriculture
From the perspective of population, in recent years, although the urban rate in Vietnam has soared, the agricultural population still accounts for 70% of the total population.
From the geographical conditions, Vietnam is watery, the climate is humid, and in Vietnamese folklore, "water" appears much more frequently than other meteorology. In this geographical condition, growing rice becomes a good choice. Watery Vietnam has also produced a rice culture with a very strong agricultural atmosphere.
From the perspective of social units, the smallest unit of Vietnamese society is the village community, which is often the main body of sacrifice activities, which allows the traditional sacrifice customs to be passed on.
Culturally, the concepts of filial piety and etiquette advocated by Confucianism have had a great influence on the Vietnamese. In Vietnamese society, where the bottom quality is "farming", the Spring Festival, as a festival based on a self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy, is highly valued by the masses.
Vietnamese Spring Festival customs
The customs of the Vietnamese Spring Festival are still relatively rich, and some customs are very similar to the customs of the Chinese New Year.
1. Sacrifice: Sacrifice to the god Vesta and ancestors
On the 23rd day of the 23rd month, the Vietnamese worship the god Vesta. Vesta, the most important family god, is a combination of the three gods of earth, land, and soil, so the Vietnamese will prepare three tablets for the god of Vesta and place their offering tables on the right side. The offering table of the ancestor worship is generally placed in the square, and the offering table of the god Vesta is adjacent to it, which shows the high status of the god vesta.
The Vietnamese believed that vesta would report to the Jade Emperor on the 23rd day of the 23rd lunar month that the family had done evil and done good, and that the Jade Emperor would inflict blessings or misfortune on a family based on vesta's feedback.
So how do the Vietnamese worship the god Vesta? Generally speaking, the Vietnamese will prepare hearty meat, tea, wine, fruit, etc. as a tribute for the god vesta to "eat". With gourmet cuisine and satisfying the stomach of vesta, it is also necessary to take care of the other life needs of vesta. So the Vietnamese found a universal material that "connects heaven and earth" - paper, cut paper into paper clothes, and made paper money to show their sincerity in honoring the god Vesta in all aspects.
Not only that, but the Vietnamese also regard the red carp with the blessing as a lucky messenger. I saw that the Vietnamese bought three red carp to worship the god vesta, and then released it and offered the god vesta a mount to fly to the heavenly court, in order to win the god's kind words in front of the Jade Emperor.
During the Spring Festival, Vietnamese people also sacrifice their ancestors. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the concept of "filial piety" in Chinese Confucian culture had spread to Vietnam and was gradually regarded as an important ethic by the Vietnamese. Here's a look at the "incense" activities of ancestor worship Chinese New Year's Eve Vietnamese Spring Festival. On the day of Chinese New Year's Eve, after placing the ancestral tablets in the center of the main room, according to the elder and young, the Vietnamese take turns to hold incense offerings.
2. Food culture: Dumplings
There are many Vietnamese Spring Festival food customs, but the most prominent is for Bao Nian Dumplings. Zongzi appears to be an unremarkable food, but the Vietnamese consider it an important cultural symbol.
"Three Kinds of Historical Materials such as Lingnan Monsters" once recorded the story of the ancestors of the Vietnamese nation, King Xiong. Raccoon Longjun and Concubine Ji gave birth to a cell, but one cell had a hundred eggs, "one egg gave birth to one man", and Concubine Ji settled in Fengzhou with fifty men. The male elder of the last fifty men is called Xiong Wang, Liwen Langguo. It is said that the king held a food contest about ancestor worship to select a successor. The goddess Lang Liao, the twelfth son of King Tomengxiong, instructed him to make a round rice dumpling symbolizing the heavens, as well as a square rice dumpling that symbolized the earth, which won the favor of the king.
It can be said that zongzi is a food promoted by the Vietnamese royal family, which means heaven and earth, and carries the wisdom of the ancestors, which can well enhance the cohesion of the people. In this way, it is not surprising that in the spring festival, bao Nian dumplings have become a food custom.
3. Substance: Spring League
Like the Chinese Spring Festival, Vietnam also has a Spring Festival. During the Vietnamese Dynasties of Li and Chen, ChunLian was generally written in Chinese characters, and during the Lê Dynasty, Chunlian was written in murmurs. After the founding of Vietnam in 1945, the Chinese characters Chunlian became less and less, and the Chinese character Chunlian abounded. So what is the general composition of Vietnam's Spring League?
The content of many Vietnamese Spring Leagues has political overtones, highlighting a strong sense of the party and the state. For example, in the Spring Festival, although the words "continuing the cause of the king" will appear, reflecting a certain historical background, it is more of a "70 years, blooming new brilliance, and the brilliant achievements of the country" that are in line with reality.
The Chinese Spring League and the Vietnamese Spring League have some differences, the content of the Chinese Spring League is generally pinned on the people's good wishes, such as peace and joy, health and smoothness, happiness and longevity and so on. In terms of form, the upper and lower sentences of the Chinese Spring League generally pay attention to rhyme, which is very ancient.
Author: Xia Zhen Correction/Editor: Lilith
Reference: "Vietnamese Culture from the Spring Festival of Vietnam" Wang Jiuqian Sichuan University of Foreign Chinese 2021
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author