Please, it's not Chinese New Year!

Here in Westminster, California, having Tet in Litte Saigon is probably the next best thing to celebrating it in Vietnam. Almost everything we need for Tet: Apricot blossoms (Hoa Mai), Cherry blossoms (Hoa Đào), Chrysanthemums (Hoa Cúc) and orchids of all varieties, bánh Chưng, bánh Tét, and all types of fruit candies (mứt)... are all here.

Driving home from work one late evening last week, the sound of booming and crackling firecrackers at the TV station next to us sent me into such a celebratory mood, overwhelmed with childhood memories.

Calligraphers (left) write down best wishes for the lunar new year or Tet in Vietnamese, for customers (right) outside the Temple of Literature in downtown Hanoi. (Photo: HOANG DINH NAM/AFP/Getty Images)

But there is one thing that always manage to dampen my spirit a little, that is, when one of my non-Vietnamese friends and acquaintances invaribly asked: “Are you celebrating Chinese New Year?”

Ghhhhhgg!

“It''s Lunar New Year! Not Chinese New Year!” I would say emphatically, as I have, countless of times,  and be ready to either face either my friend''s surprise, or to answer their question “what is Lunar?”

This short article will explain once and for all to those who still refer to Lunar New Year as Chinese New Year.

A Vietnamese Lunar New Year greeting card. (Photo: Hà Giang)

First of all, many Asian countries use a lunar calendar, which is based on cycles of the lunar phases, when it orbits around the earth. 

People in Asian countries have celebrated the Lunar New Year, the first day of the moon cycle, for thousands of years. The origin of this celebration dated back to an ancient time when there was no such country called China, or the people called Chinese.

The fact that the Chinese, together with many people in Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, Vietnam, celebrate the new year base on Lunar calendar,  does not make Lunar New Year a “Chinese New Year” at all!

As a matter of fact, even in the Chinese language, there are nothing called Chinese New Year. For thousands of years, Lunar New Year in China is called "春节" or "chūn jié" which means Spring Festival, a celebration that customary lasts a whole week.

In Vietnam, Lunar New Year is called Tết Nguyên Đán, which means literally the first morning of the first day of the new period. Tết, or Vietnamese version of the Lunar New Year, is the biggest and most important holiday in Vietnamese culture, almost like Western New Year''s Day, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas all combined into one.

Tet is a time for everyone to be with family, to envelop oneself in the secured feeling that you are loved, a time to remember our ancestors, for the youngs to wish the olds properity, health and longevity, and for the olds to bestow the youngs with their wisdom, well wishes, and even to share their wealth, at least symbolically, with the "Lì Xì" envelops.

Vietnamese in Little Saigon, Westminster, California, getting ready for Tet at Bolsa flower market. (Photo: Ngoc Lan)

So, if the Chinese used to call Lunar New Year “Spring Festival,” (春节 or chūn jié) when and why did they change it to Chinese New Year? You may ask.

Well, so far, I have not been able to determine when exactly Spring Festival was changed to Chinese New Year, or even if the Chinese were responsible for that change.

All I know is that “Chinese New Year” is a misnomer, and I agree with author Yeomin, Yoon, an educator that “the use of such a misnomer as “Chinese New Year” would only encourage the cultural chauvinism and imperialism that was deplored by Liang Qi Chao (1873-1929), a Chinese political philosopher and prominent reformist, a century ago, and would be detrimental to world peace in today’s globalized environment.

So if you don''t want to encourage cultural chauvinism, please do not repeat and spread this misnomer, and call the Lunar New Year by its correct name.