Hello and welcome to VOV’s Letter Box, our weekly feature dedicated to listeners throughout the world. We are Mai Phuong and Ngoc Huyen.

A: First on our show today, we’d like to thank Amir Jameel of Sahiwal, Pakistan and his club for their keen interest in VOV broadcasts. Amir wrote that his club is going to arrange an exhibition for the promotion of Radio the Voice of Vietnam’s English Service in Sahiwal, Pakistan New Year’s Eve 2015.

B: Amir, we’re happy to know there’s a VOV listener club in Sahiwal. We hope all of you keep tuning in to our broadcasts and sharing your comments. We’ll send you some souvenirs for your exhibition.

A: Mitul Kansal of India has become a regular listener. He has been sending us regular feedbacks and sharing his interest in our broadcasts. Mitul has many questions about Vietnam, its tradition, culture and socio-political events- too many to answer in one program. Stay tuned to hear the answers.

B: This week, we’d like to talk about Tet, Vietnam’s traditional lunar New Year festival. It is the most important celebration in Vietnam. Tết celebrates the arrival of spring based on the Vietnamese lunar calendar, which usually falls in the month of January or February. This year, Tet festival will begin on February 18- New Year’s Eve. The first day of the new lunar year will be February 19.

Tet food

A: Tet festival officially lasts three days. Because it is the biggest holiday of the year, Vietnamese people prepare for Tết by cooking special holiday foods. Popular Tet dishes are square sticky rice cakes, round sticky rice cakes, dried young bamboo soup, pork paste pies and sticky rice. Tet foods are different in different regions.

B: There are a lot of customs associated with Tết. Homes are often cleaned and decorated on New Year's Eve. Children are in charge of sweeping and scrubbing the floor. The kitchen needs to be cleaned before the 23rd night of the last month. It is a common belief that cleaning the house gets rid of any bad luck associated with the old year. Some people paint their house and decorate it with festive items. Getting new clothes is often the most exciting part of the Vietnamese New Year for children. Their best outfit is always worn on the first day of the year.

Peach blossoms

A: A farewell ceremony for the Kitchen Gods is a big celebration event leading up to Tet. Seven days prior to Tet on the 23rd night of the last lunar month, each Vietnamese family performs a farewell ceremony to send Ong Tao, the Kitchen God, to Heaven’s Palace to report to the Jade Emperor the family's conduct during the previous year. 

Tet traditional cakes

B: It is a common belief among Vietnamese people that there are 12 Sacred Zodiac Animals who take turns monitoring and controlling the affairs of the earth. New Year’s Eve is the most sacred time of the year, when people say goodbye to one anima and welcome a new one. This year, Vietnamese people will see off the Horse and welcome the Goat.

A: The first houseguest to visit is very important. If that particular guest has a good aura, is well respected, well educated, successful, famous, etc., then the family believes they will receive luck and good fortune throughout the year. This belief called "Xong Dat" is still strong, especially among families with businesses. 

Apricot flowers

B: Apricot and peach flowers are considered Tet flowers in Vietnam. Hoa Mai are the yellow apricot flowers often seen in the south and Hoa Dao are peach blossoms that suit the dry, cold weather in the North. Tet is not Tet without apricot or peach flowers in every home.

A: Giving out red envelopes containing lucky money is a cultural practice that has been maintained for generations. The red envelopes symbolize luck and wealth. It is very common to see older people giving sealed red envelopes to younger people, with good advice and words of wisdom, encouraging the young people to keep up with their schoolwork, live in harmony with others, and obey their parents.

B: Tết is also a session of pilgrimages and family reunions. During Tết, Vietnamese visit their relatives and temples, forget about the troubles of the past year and hope for a better upcoming year. Tết is considered the beginning of spring and the festival is often called Hội xuân (spring festival).

A: That’s a brief summary of the Vietnamese traditional lunar New Year festival. We’ll delve further into this festival in later shows. So stay tuned.

B: Next is an email from Jayanta Chakrabarty of India. This week, Jayanta watched a news video entitled “Easing the Pain of Agent Orange/Dioxin victims” on our website. He wrote: “It is a moving account of the lives of the unfortunate people who have been exposed to these dangerous chemicals. The victims are not only disadvantaged but have less mental capability than normal children. The welfare-oriented and socially-conscious government of Vietnam embarked on a noble and appreciated project in Quang Nam from early last year to bring an iota of hope and happiness into the lives of these young unfortunate Vietnamese children”.

A: Jayanta continues: “The video feature points out that support for this noble cause is coming from benevolent people and organizations. Joy is apparent in the faces of these children. VOV through this news video has shown that a good beginning has been made that can serve as a model for the whole world”.

B: Thank you, Jayanta, for your feedback. Listening to our broadcast on November 2, at 1800 UTC on the frequency of 5955 khz, Christer Brunstrom of Sweden rated the signal at a SINPO of 4544. He wrote: “I enjoyed the Sunday Show as it had enough time to cover the subject fully. By the way, recently I have been working on a story which includes the Kingdom of Se Dang in the late 1800s. It’s quite an intriguing story”.

A: We highly appreciated your comments, Christer. We’ll send you a QSL card to confirm your report. Last week, many Indian listeners mentioned their joy in listening to our news stories on the development of Vietnamese-Indian relations, which was widely covered by Vietnamese and Indian media on the occasion of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to India.

B: On today’s program, we’d like to acknowledge letters and emails from Dewan Rafiqul Islam and  Razzak Hoshin of Bangladesh, SB Sharma of India, Pak Ning Tjang of Indonesia, and Cristian Puddu of Italy. Thank you all for your reception reports. We’ll send you QSL cards and the souvenirs you requested soon.  

A: We welcome your feedback at: English section, Overseas Service, Radio Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam. Or you can email us at: englishsection@vov.org.vn. You’re invited to visit us online at www.vovworld.vn, where you can hear both live and recorded programs. Good bye until next time.