As eating plays such an important role in Vietnamese society, there are certain requirements of dining etiquette, although this can vary from region to region . For example, in northern and central Vietnam, it is custom for the oldest family member to sit nearest the door and everyone else to be arranged in descending age. The eldest will also be the first to help himself to food and a host will often serve the guest. In the south where the traditions of etiquette are more relaxed, everyone can dive in and help themselves . If you are the guest, one tradition that is important to remember is the bearing of a small gift. Whether you are invited to eat in a home or restaurant, throughout Asia, from Turkey to China, it is polite to bring your hosts a little box of something sweet or a bunch of fresh flowers - although in Vietnam t he flowers should never be white as this signifies death.
COMMUNAL DINING
As with most Asian countries, dining is a communal affair. A selection of dishes may be put on a table and each diner will be given their own individual bowl into which the food is spooned . When passing the food around, two hands are used to hold the dish and the exchange is acknowledged with a nod . Food is usually eaten with fingers, chopsticks or spoons, although the Vietnamese have a knack of sipping their food from the spoons without ever putting the spoon into their mouths.
The proper way to eat is to take some rice from the communal dish and put it in your bowl, then use the ceramic spoon to transfer the meat, fish or vegetables onto your rice. Hold the bowl up near to your mouth and use the chopsticks to shovel in the tasty morsels. It is polite for the host to offer more food than the guests can eat but, equally, it is polite for the guests not to eat everything in sight.
Depending on the complexity of the meal, there will be a number of individual dipping bowls, containing sweet or spicy condiments, and there may also be bowls of chillies or pick led vegetables to crunch and chew on between mouthfuls. When the Vietnamese eat , there is a great deal of gutsy enjoyment and noisy slurping. Eating is almost a game - there are crabs to crack, prawns to suck, food to be wrapped and rolled , and a lot of mess as they love lingering over food.
FAMILY CELEBRATIONS
For the Vietnamese , to show a "big face" is a sign of prestige. Weddings and family celebrations are often elaborate and ruinously expensive for some families, but the cost is less important than "losing" face . A great deal of preparation goes into these events so that the food is overflowing. Each celebration calls for traditional, time-consuming specialities, and opulent dishes will appear, such as the Vietnamese roast duck, sliced into juicy slabs, drizzled with the piquant fish sauce (nuoc cham), and wrapped in lettuce leaves; sticky rice cakes steamed in lotus leaves and decorated with lot us flowers; and highly prized whole fish, grilled (broiled) or teamed with the head presented to the guest who is destined for good fortune. On these occasions, the habitual fragrant tea may be cast aside for a little merriment with beer and wine.
RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS
Vietnam's calendar is full of festivals, all of which call for elaborate feasting and celebration. The national celebrations include Liberation Day, which marks the date that Saigon surrendered; National Day on 2 September, to mark the Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam by Ho Chi Minh in 1945; and Ho Chi Minh's Birthday.
The religious festivals take place according to the lunar calendar, so the dates change from year to year. Important religious festivals include Buddha's Birthday, Phat Dan; Christmas; the Holiday of the Dead, Thanh Minh, when people visit the graves of dead relatives to light incense and make offerings of food and flowers; Wandering Souls Day, when offerings of food and gifts are made for the forgotten dead; and the mid-Autumn Festival, which lands on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon. To celebrate the harvest, children take part in an evening procession, holding colourful lanterns in the form of dragons, fish, boats and unicorns, while the drums and cymbals play and festive snacks and sweets, such as sticky rice cakes filled with lotus seeds, peanuts , and candied watermelon seeds, are sold in the streets.
Tet - Vietnamese New Year
Tet Nguyen Dan, meaning "New Dawn", is the most important festival of the Vietnamese lunar year. It falls some time between mid-January and mid-February and lasts for three days. It is a time of renewing and reaffirming beliefs in life, love, family and community . Families reunite in the hope of success and prosperity in the coming year. Cemeteries are visited and the spirits of dead relatives are invited home for the Tet celebrations. Homes and graves a re cleaned and decorations are put up. The rites for Tet begin a week in advance .
The first rite is the ascension of the Spirits of the Hearth to the heavens . These kitchen gods dwell in every kitchen and must ride on the backs of fish to report on the year's events to the Jade Emperor in the hope of bringing back good luck for the family. To aid them on their journey, families all over Vietnam put live carp into the rivers and lakes and leave offerings of food and fresh water at the altars. At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, the noise of drums and cymbals mark the beginning of the celebrations as the gods are welcomed back.
The first meal of Tet is one for the ancestors as they are believed to have returned to the world of the living. The head of t he family will offer a grace, light three incense sticks, then invite five generations of the deceased, whispering their names, to join in t he family feast. This ceremony of "ancestor calling" takes place at the morning and evening meals for the three days of Tet. The second day of Tet involves visiting the wife's family and close friends and the third day is for embracing the community. Families visit the school teachers , patients visit their doctors, and many people visit astrologers to hear the year's fortunes . On the evening of t he third day, the ancestors depart.
The principal Tet speciality is banh chung, sticky rice cakes filled with bean paste and, traditionally, wrapped in a green dong (similar to a banana leaf) parcel and tied with bamboo twine . Throughout the festivities, stacks of banh chung are piled high in the stalls next to watermelons and dragon fruit, sweets, lotus seeds dyed a festive red to represent joy, truth and sincerity, and the popular mut, a candied concoction of vegetables and dried fruits, which are on display among the woven, painted masks. Lucky money is placed on trees as offerings to the ancestors and homes are decorated with trees, such as pretty, fruit- laden kumquats, or peach and apricot trees , resplendent in perfumed blossom, to ward off evil spirits.
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