LUNAR NEW YEAR Lunar New Year Festival often falls between late January and early February; it is among the most important holidays in Vietnam. Officially, the festival includes the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd day of January in the Lunar Calendar; however, Vietnamese people often spend nearly a month celebrating this special event. Since Tet occupies an important role in Vietnamese’s religious beliefs, Vietnamese will begin their preparations well in advance of the upcoming New Year. To get rid of the bad luck of the old year, people will spend a few days cleaning their homes, polishing every utensil, or even repainting and decorating the house with kumquat trees, branches of peach blossom, and many other colorful flowers. The ancestral altar is specially taken care of, with careful decoration of five kinds of fruits and votive papers, along with many religious rituals. Everybody, especially children, buys new clothes and shoes to wear on the first days of New Year. People also try to pay all their pending debts and resolve all the arguments among colleagues, friends, or members of the family. Vietnamese believe that the color of red and yellow will bring good fortune, which may explain why these colors can be seen everywhere in Lunar New Year. People consider what they do on the dawn of Tet will determine their fate for the whole year, hence people always smile and behave as nice as they can in the hope for a better year. 1. When is Lunar New Year celebrated officially? 2. How long do people often spend celebrating it? 3. What kind of plants do people use to decorate the house during this festival? 4. Who usually wears new clothes and shoes on the first days of New Year? 5. What color will bring good fortune according to Vietnamese belief?