OGVSU TAKES ON TẾT Written By OGVSU Lunar New Year has just passed, and the Vietnamese Student Union (VSU) brought new and unique ways to celebrate this past month! Lunar New Year is a celebration of the new year according to the lunar calendar. To put in perspective, Americans traditionally celebrate the solar new year when the Earth makes one complete orbit around the sun. The Lunar New Year is celebrated when the Earth’s moon has just completed 12 full cycles. The moon’s cycles vary every year, hence why Lunar New Year falls on a different day each year. Additionally, the Chinese and Vietnamese share 12 zodiac animals. Within every 12 years, there is a different animal representing different characteristics. This year is the Year of the Ox, which symbolizes hard work and endurance! Overall, this holiday is celebrated by many Asian cultures and countries, such as the Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Tibetan, Mongolian, and more! In a typical year, you may see students and staff dressed in traditional Vietnamese dresses, called áo dài, to ring in the new year. The VSU typically sets up a stage with a traditional Vietnamese board game, paintings of scrolls hung up, Vietnamese music playing in the background, and lucky red envelopes being handed out.
We even had a traditional lion dance perform at our school last year! Due to the pandemic, however, people were limited in how they could celebrate this holiday safely. The VSU Board made a special appearance in the weekly morning announcements to present history and background information on the holiday. We were all dressed in our áo dài for the recording and held up red envelopes at the end! In addition to this, we had a five-day countdown leading up to the Lunar New Year on our Instagram page where one to two board members talked about their favorite New Year’s traditions and memories. Some of our board members also attended a Zoom social event where ten different VSU’s across the Bay Area came together to play games and bond over Lunar New Year traditions. Even if you do not celebrate Lunar New Year, we hope that you might have learned something new and enjoyed the festivities. During Lunar New Year, the Vietnamese traditionally wish good luck to others, and so, we wish you all a healthy, prosperous, and happy new year!
