Today we had a great Tet celebration! We learned so much about Vietnamese culture and language, the children really enjoyed celebrating a new holiday.
We started out out morning by looking at some of the treasures Ryan and I had brought back from Vietnam with us last year. We looked at the different kinds of traditional clothing people in Vietnam wear for special occasions called an Ao Dai. The children guessed what kind of material the Ao Dai is made from as they passed the Ao Dai around, feeling how soft and thin the fabric is. Isaiah guessed right, the Ao Dai's are made of silk! We also passed around a Non La (conical hat) and guessed what it was made of, and why it would be important to wear in the hot weather of Vietnam. The Vietnamese Non La is a perfect hat for rain or sun and it's really light as a feather so it's easy to wear all day long while the people work. We looked at the map and talked a little bit about the different area's of Vietnam and I shared some post card photo's of the Ha Long Bay mountains and water. We talked about the Legend of Ha Long Bay and about the people that make their living and spend their lives working and living on the water in the floating homes and markets.
The children learned the Vietnamese words for Thank You, Hello and Good Bye and the name of the traditional dress. We also practiced saying Chúc mừng năm mới!Happy New Year!
We had a Vietnamese lunch, complete with chopsticks! The children actually were pretty good at getting the food to their mouths with the chopsticks! They loved the noodles and rice, tangerines and green beans with broccoli and beef.
After lunch we made red and yellow paper lanterns decorated with flowers, because during Tet everything is decorated with flowers and peach and apricot blossoms.
We tasted some yummy Vietnamese treats, some of them we liked and some of them we didn't like at all but every body at least tasted everything! The coconut cookies were very popular, along with the sweet potato candy. The ginger candy and the watermelon seeds were not very big hits with anyone.
We colored pictures of the traditional Vietnamese clothing and the dragon dance and fire work celebration that happens on Tet and we watched a couple of video clips of the drummers and dragon dance performers. The children were absolutely amazed at the drummers! That is Elia's favorite part of Tet too! We love the dragon and drums the most.
Before going upstairs for snack we learned about the tradition of lucky red envelops. In Vietnam children are given lucky red envelopes with money in them and a wish for the New Year. They are mostly given by older relatives. The children received money in their lucky red envelopes and practiced bowing and saying thank you in Vietnamese. They were very enthusiastic about learning how to bow and were hoping to surprise parents at home by bowing and saying thank you for dinner! :)
Our snack was supposed to be a traditional Tet cake made with rice and beans but Ryan and I accidentally got the pork cake rather than the sweet cake, so we weren't sure if we should eat it or not. We opened it, passed it around and talked about how it is made by being boiled and wrapped in banana leaves but decided to have crackers for snack rather than pork cake! Maybe next year we'll be a little more brave with that one.
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