Sticking pieces of red paper on the ancestral altar (photo: VOV)

The lunar New Year celebration, Tet, is the biggest event of the year for all 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam, including the Tay and the Nung. It’s the moment of transition between two years and the beginning of a new circle of the earth and all things. To welcome a new year, the Tay and Nung prepare food for a festival and put up a Neu tree, a tall bamboo pole decorated with items they believe have the power to ward off evil spirits. The Tay and Nung have a custom of sticking pieces of red paper on tools like rice mills, plows, and harrows.

Nguyen Van Vi of Cao Bang province says that before Tet, people go to the market to buy food, confectionaries, beverages, and red paper to decorate their houses.

“Several days before Tet, Tay people bring sheets of red paper to the shamans to write charms on them to stick on the altar and other things. After removing old red paper from the altar, we clean the altar with water boiled with grapefruit leaves and then glue new sheets of red paper to it. We also stick red paper on the door, the house pillars, the barns of our buffalos, cows, pigs, and chickens, and on our hoes and shovels to pray for good fortune, peace, health, and good business in the new year. Red paper sheets should be odd in number, for example 3,5, or 7 sheets on the altar and doors and 1 sheet on other thing like furniture and plants.”

Pieces of red paper are stuck on the door. (photo:VOV)

The old paper is burned. They don’t throw away old red paper because they are afraid that if an animal steps on it, the family will have bad luck in the new year. When they burn old red paper, they destroy bad things that happened in the old year.

The custom of sticking red paper has changed. In the past shamans wrote charms on the paper. Now people can buy printed charms and parallel sentences.

Duong Sach, a researcher of Tay-Nung culture in Cao Bang, says red paper is a symbol of joy, good luck, yang, sunshine, and a new good start.

“The Tay and Nung think pieces of red paper are like the embers and smoke of a fire, which can chase away evil spirits and preserve peace. The color red appears at all happy events and festivals. Tet parallel sentences are written on red paper, which is stuck on offerings for a party, on ancestral altars, doors, furniture, and animal barns. They think that farm tools and plants have souls like human beings. They accompany their owners on sunny and rainy days to create wealth. Therefore, people stick red paper to acknowledge their role, thank them, and invite them to celebrate Tet with people after a year of hard work. They all pray for a new year of bountiful harvest,” Sach said.

Many things have changed, but the custom of sticking red paper during Tet has been preserved in the life of the Tay and Nung. During Tet, Tay and Nung villages are colored red, a wish for better things in the new year.