Tết Nguyên Đán — commonly shortened to Tết — is the most important holiday in Vietnamese culture by an enormous margin. Literally meaning the 'Feast of the First Morning of the New Period,' it marks not only the new year but also the arrival of spring, the reunion of family, and the veneration of ancestors who remain spiritually present in the home.
Vietnam's relationship with Tết is intimate and deeply personal. Unlike the spectacular public displays of China's Spring Festival, Tết carries a quieter, more intensely familial quality — the emphasis is on returning home (về quê), cleaning and decorating the ancestral altar, cooking together, and honoring the dead as well as the living. The holiday is felt as much in its silences as in its celebrations.
The Tet Offensive of 1968 — launched during the holiday ceasefire — left a historical wound that makes Tết uniquely layered for Vietnamese people, carrying within it both the purest joy of cultural celebration and the shadow of national trauma. Today, the holiday has reclaimed its rightful place as a festival of hope, renewal, and profound family devotion.