Tet Preparations

Tet is the Vietnamese word for Lunar New Year, which will be on Thursday, February 7, this year. The day and date changes each year according to the lunar calendar. Most people just call this holiday Chinese New Year. Today my sister and I drove about 3 hours to get to the shops in Houston, which is due east of Seguin. It's the only place where we can find things such as the special yellow flower, Mai, that you see in between the golden mums. These flowers are considered good luck flowers, especially if they are in bloom as the new year rolls in. We stocked up on tons of cookies, candies and decorations. We also had some great Viet. food while we shopped. And of course I had my favorite drink, frozen mocha pearl tea. Mmmm...

I'm pretty tired now with all the driving but it was worth it. The festive atmosphere of the shops was what we needed to get us in the right frame of mind for Tet. Throngs of people pushed carts through the doors of the Hong Kong Market on Bellaire and we were thrilled really to be among this craziness. It gave us a chance to recall memories of all the celebrations our parents took us to when we were younger. In the Raleigh (NC) area where we grew up, there was always big Tet celebrations where the Vietnamese community would come together to eat, sing, perform traditional skits and dances, pass out gifts to the kids (usually the red envelopes filled with lucky money) and celebrate together. It was nice to think about those times again with Lan. Last year I also posted about Tet on February 18.