This article is about the Vietnamese holiday. For the 1968 military operation that began on that holiday, see Tết Offensive. For other uses, see Tet (disambiguation). For other traditions of celebrating lunar new year, see Lunar New Year (disambiguation).

Tết (Northern Vietnamese: [tet˧˥], Southern Vietnamese: [tɜːt˧˥]), or Vietnamese New Year, is the most important celebration of Vietnamese culture. The word is a shortened form of Tết Nguyên Đán (Nôm: 節元旦) , which is Sino-Vietnamese for "Feast of the First Morning of the First Day". It celebrates the arrival of spring based on the Vietnamese calendar, a lunisolar calendar, which usually has the date falling between the months of January or February.^[1] 

Tết is celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year, though exceptions arise due to the one-hour time difference between Hanoi andBeijing resulting in the alternate calculation of the new moon. It takes place from the first day of the first month of the Vietnamese calendar (around late January or early February) until at least the third day. Many Vietnamese prepare for Tết by cooking special holiday foods and cleaning the house. There are a lot of customs practiced during Tết, such as visiting a person's house on the first day of the new year (xông nhà), ancestral worshipping, wishing New Year's greetings, giving lucky money to children and elderly people, and opening a shop.

Tết is also an occasion for pilgrims and family reunions. During Tết, Vietnamese visit their relatives and temples, forgetting about the troubles of the past year and hoping for a better upcoming year. They consider Tết to be the first day of spring and the festival is often called Hội xuân(spring festival).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%E1%BA%BFt