Celebrating Tết Lunar New Year 2024 - the Year of the Dragon.
Happy Lunar New Year! Chúc Mừng Năm Mới! It's the first day in the Year of the Dragon and, in my straddling-two-cultures life, the second opportunity to turn over a new leaf and get a fresh start; now it's time to really buckle down and work on making those resolutions reality.
1 (above) - Flowers to welcome the new year.
2 - Welcoming the Kitchen God back from the heavens, where he was reporting on the state of the household and the family to the ancestors over the last week.
3 & 4 - Tết Eve dinner, which was offered to the ancestors on the ancestral altar earlier in the evening.
5 - Hái lộc ("harvesting luck") by going out right before midnight and ushering in good fortune as the first over the threshold.
6 - Mama Hen-made bánh chưng with salty brined dried radish. It's a square-shaped glutinous rice "cake" (really a loaf) wrapped and steamed in banana leaves with a filling of pork and mashed mung beans. The square shape represents the earth.
7 through 9 - Games of chance and/or skill with some wagers are a traditional Tết activity to determine luck for the coming year. Here, we have "horse race chess" (aka Parcheesi). And I won!! Look at my winning blue horses 😁 and my haul of quarters!
To a happy, healthy, prosperous, successful, peaceful, and purposeful Year of the Dragon!
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