And a very happy new year!

Can’t believe 2014 is coming so fast. What have you planned for the new year’s eve? I presume whatever your plan is, drinking is a vital part.
This year I’m spending Xmas with my cousin in London, watching fireworks at London’s eye. To be honest, i never really celebrated new year on 31st of December/1st January before. For me, or people from the Far East, Lunar New Year is more important. Our New Year is often celebrated around the end of January or beginning of February.
So i think Western people often have champagne on New Year’s eve, hang out with friends and families and watch the fireworks or some special New Year shows. If your celebration only lasts for 1 night and 1 day then in my culture, we celebrated it for almost 10 days, both before and after the New Year. We call it Tet in Vietnam.
Before the New Year day, we usually spend days doing some spring cleanings, redecorations for the house. The whole idea behind that is to clean off any bad spirits around the house so that we could welcome the good ones when new year comes. We always buy a lot of flowers and trees to make the house look more refreshing. Every household has at least one of the special trees for the occasion:….  My house has a small yard at the front so we often get both. On new year’s eve, we always go to my grandparents’ house to have the last meal of the year, watch the special New Year show, set up a small shrine in front of the house and enjoy the fireworks together. The shrine is thought to invite the ancestors of the family back to the house to celebrate new year with us in hope that they will then give blessings upon us next year.
Usually during the next 5 days, we visit families, relatives and friends to wish people a happy new year. The children receive lucky money from adults, this tradition is thought as an act to wish the children all the health, luck and blessings so they all could grow up happily.
We also have special food for the holiday: sticky rice cake, Vietnamese sausages, special vegetable soups and several types of candies and snacks. I have to admit, people, including me often find ourselves gaining “a little” weight after Tet.
If you have the chance, go down to Londom sometimes during the last week of January, you can see how Asian/ Chinese people.celebrate the holiday. Our coming new year is on the last friday of January.

This probably is my last blog for 2013, so I would like to wish you all a very happy New Year with lots of joys and lucks.