Why Vietnamese people buy peach blossoms for Lunar New Year

At the approach of Tet, everyVietnamese home is adorned with a branch of peach blossoms. If the time isproperly reckoned a peach branch, slightly burned at the end and put in a vaseof fresh water, will blossom exactly on the morning of the first day of the NewYear .A horticultural marvel, you may think. True enough, but remember that inolden days, the peach branch was used as a charm: it could ward evil spiritsthat prowled by night.
 
Legend has it that in the distantpast, a peach tree of fantastic size grew on the slopes a mountain in China. Itabundant foliage spread for hundreds of leagues around. Two powerful geniilived in it and fed on the flesh of devils and other evil spirits. Naturally,the latter fled of having their dream disturbed.
 
But at the end of every year, thegenii had to go t Heaven to report to the Celestial Lord. Fearing that the evilspirits would do them harm in the genii’s absence, the inhabitants of thismountain cut a branch of the magic peach tree to decorate their ancestralaltars.
 
Some cautious people went evenfurther: They wrote the genii’s names or sketched their likenesses on the peachbranch. Very few devils dared come near. That is how the use of peach branchesspread and reached Vietnam, where, for centuries, local inhabitants haverejoiced in Tet under the protection of these spring flowers.
 
Why do people pick a branch of greenery just after midnight on NewYear’s Eve?
 
There was once a blessed landwhere fairies came when they felt homesick for a stay on earth. They could beseen dancing or chatting. Wonderful trees grew where they left a footprint or ahand print. These trees lost all their leaves with new green dresses in honorof Tet

To ensure a happy new year, thelocal people picked fresh branches to decorate their thresholds. The time ofpicking varied from between the eve of Tet and the dawn on the first day of theNew Year. But the most auspicious time was assuredly the stroke of midnight onthe night of tet will ensure a happy New Year.

Why do people avoid sweeping their house with a broom for the firstthree days of the New Year?

A legend which no longer fits inwith present- day requirements is the story of casting aside the broom duringthe first three days of the New Year. The story goes that in days gone by, atrader met a poorly dressed little girl while he was crossing Dongting Lake.Struck with pity, he adopted her, and from that day on had amazing success inthe most daring business deals.

But one Tet, the little girlbroke a valuable vase. To escape a beating, she hid in the refuse heap at theback of the house. The trader, who had grown cruel as he became rich, searchedthrough the rubbish heap with a big broom. The heap was then pushed to the edgeof a pond, but the girl was not found. The trader soon became poor: he hadswept the Goddess of Fortune out of his house.

Nowadays, hygiene prevails overfolklore, but there are still old women in the trading streets of Hanoi whofear a warning from the Department of Health but who are even more afraid ofdisturbing the Goddess of Fortune. That is why their brooms rest on the firstday and sometimes even on the first three days of the year, just as they did inancient time, when poets and writers had the gift of seeing divinities in humanfrom walking on earth.

This article is written by Jane Nguyen from Vacation to Vietnam

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