Apart from members of the royal family, courtiers, dignitaries and mandarins, mandarinate calendars were also presented to craftsmen, soldiers, royal servants, eunuchs and royal maids in the court. The number of calendars depended on the receivers’ position and salary. Local administrative bodies dispatched their representatives to the Royal Observatory to get calendars.
In Vietnamese people’s mind, the Lunar New Year festival is the most important and sacred occasion. However, in the current context of international integration and exchange, a very part of young people are making light of the nation’s cultural traditions and values. Therefore, the Thăng Long - Hà Nội Heritage Conservation Centre has organized the Vietnamese Tết festival annually, introducing and displaying some customs in order to servepeople’s amusement demands as well as contribute to the preservation and promotion of the nation’s cultural values.
To welcome the New Year, each and every family used to ornate their house with red parallel sentences, from the gate to the inside. Under the Lê Dynasty, throughout the Imperial Citadel of Thăng Long, from kings, mandarins, confucian scholars, merchants, to poor people, every house hung parallel sentences. Parallel sentences were written in black ink on red paper, symbolizing good lucks, happiness and warmth of spring days. Displaying parallel sentences was considered as a cultural quintessence and a spiritual food during the Lunar New Year festival.
In the past, people hung folk paintings in order to “see off the old, welcome the new”, expecting for good things in the New Year. After the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, every family replaced their old paintings with new ones. Popular New Year paintings were: “Chickens”, “Pigs” representing the aspiration of prosperity all the year; “Honour-Wealth” with the expectation that the family would do well, having both sons and daughters; “Buffalo”, “Cock” to receive the warmth of spring. Hàng Trống, Đông Hồ and Kim Hoàng were three famous schools of folk paintings in Thăng Long and the suburban.
Playing flowers and bonsai trees has become a good cultural tradition of Vietnamese people. Flowers and ornamental trees arearranged in different sites within a house, creating an ambiance of excitement to welcome the Lunar New Year. The altar is decorated with chrysanthemum, tagetes, gladiolus, tuberose andlucky bamboo. In the living room, there must be peach blossom, apricot blossom, orchid, bunch-flowered narcissus, dahlia, violet, gerbera, and kumquat. Each flower has its own features but they all symbolizegood lucks, prosperity and peace. This eleganthobby not only serves the demand for the scent and beauty of nature but also expressesgood wishes in the New Year.
