Chuc Mung Nam Moi!  Happy New Year! It is new year's day in the lunar new year - the year of the Ox.  The TET holiday is wonderful.  It has been fun and really interesting to see and learn about a holiday so different from any of our own.  Having another week off of school doesn't hurt either.

     So Tet has been described to me as many of our holidays rolled into one - Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years... It is a time of true celebration and time with family.  Today, at the end of New Year's Eve and preparations for Tet, you could walk down the middle of the street for five minutes and not have to move.  The streets are deserted!  Everyone had returned to the countryside or is home with family.  We have had to prepare for even all of the grocery stores closing for three days. People are especially happy and smiley, and moving a little more easily amidst the city chaos that is a part of our lives every day. In many ways, it is a very lovely holiday.

     Gifts are exchanged for Tet.  People give each other flowers (more about them in a bit) produce, baskets of food, and "lucky money" in special little red envelopes.  That's about it.  It is so practical and makes sense.  Workers are allowed Tet bonuses by law. We gave  our cleaning lady an additional months salary, which is standard fare.  

     The big flower market in Phu My Hung was actually right behind our building.  (Photos to follow.)  This was a good thing during the day, but loud at night.  (We smiled at each other last night at the silence of it.)

    The flowers in all of the flower markets are breathtakingly beautiful.

     Maeve learned to wish everyone a happy new year in Vietnamese.  That has been a big hit.  She also got to celebrate International Day at school.  We came prepared with Walmart bandanas and socks and a 4th of July dress.

 Here's Maeve in the parade of Americans.  : )

It was so fun to see all of the kids in their traditional country dress after seeing them in uniforms every day.  They all looked so different.  I laid eyes on clothing I had never laid eyes on before in my life!  (Like traditional Philipino shirts and outfits from Malaysia).  OK, the confession is that we did not really have international day as a middle school, so I snuck my math students out to watch the "parade of nations".  The whole international day idea is something I was really looking forward to and couldn't resist.

     Little American posers at International Day.  It was really fun to sample all of the foods from different countries.  One bite from the food at the Japanese table sent me whooshing back to high school and my stay in Japan.

    The flower market near our house was impressive.  Here are dragon fruit plants.

Here we are setting out to check out the flower market after school one evening. We dined on Vietnamese spring rolls and cotton candy.

It is the year of the ox, so you see statues of them everywhere.  It was fun to go in here, the deserted amusement park directly behind our apartment.  They used the space for the flower market and accompanying diversions, but did not use the ferris wheel, etc.  (Looking at the state of them, I'm not sure they could ever be used again.)  

     We saw water puppets here, like the ones that we saw at the history museum.  (I think it may have been the same troupe.)  Yes, they are puppets that are in water.  This one is my favorite.

A cool picture of the troupe as they take their bows, in water, at the end.

A twilight view of the market behind our apartment.

    We also headed downtown for the Tet decorations and flower markets there.  They were impressive!  I also noticed how uncommercial they were.  Huge main thoroughfares shut down and mostly decorations of flowers, plants, statues, and other "arrangements" were everywhere.  There were a few drink and ice cream vendors, but not the miles of chatchkas and stupid souvenirs you would have seen in the US at something like this.  Charles reminded me that it was probably all carefully groomed and chosen by the government.  Pepsico Vietnam was involved.

    Maeve and pineapple plants...

   The downtown flower market.  Flowers as far as the eye can see...  The air glowed yellow.

More downtown decorations.

I have never seen such orchids in my life.

This was one of my favorite downtown decorations - hugh yellow flowers suspended above the main thoroughfare in a giant net.

These plants look right out of a Dr. Suess book and make me nervous for some reason.  (???)

Dragon fruit plants and sunflowers at the downtown flower market.

     So one of the amazing things is that people come to the flower markets and buy these huge,  gorgeous plants. There were very few cut flowers at all.  There were some smaller pepper plants and cacti, but most of the plants are quite substantial.  Then, of course, people need to get the plants home....on scooters of course!  Here is a couple with their four hugh plants, venturing home for a happy Tet.

     Christmas decorations shared space with Maeve's Tet contributions.  

Small paper lanterns we bought at the flower market.

These yellow flowers are EVERYWHERE, including the girls beds.

    I went to our school's version of a New Year's party at colleagues' very cool rooftop apartment in the next building.  It was fun to sit on the outside patio in the cool breeze (by my standards - I had a tank top on still) and welcome in the new lunar year.

     Grandma and Aunt Jen's Christmas Packages made it just in time for Tet! Who says you can't have another Christmas tree?  (Especially a magic crystal Christmas Tree. Thanks, you guys.)

      Thanks to Diana Butcavage who sent her Christmas card that made it here, no problem!  Basically the rule of thumb seems to be about two to three months for packages to arrive.  Thanks to Diana, I now know that regular letters and cards only seem to take about 10 days to two weeks.  Good to know, especially if you were thinking about sending us a letter or card.  (Not so subliminal, eh?)

     Chuc Mung Nam Moi to you!  We hope you are well and can find a little of the flowers, peace, warmth, and joy, maybe even lucky money of the Tet holiday in your life this week.  Don't be a stranger.