Vietnamese families often visit their ancestors’ tombs and clean gravesites whenever the Lunar New Year (Tet) comes (Illustrative image)

They light incense at the graves, sum up the family’s major events during the year for their ancestors and invite the deceased to “go home” to enjoy Tet with the alive. 

Then family members uproot weeds, tend to the flowers growing on ancestors’ gravesites and clean the grave stones.

Vietnamese people believe everything, including the deceased’s tombs, should be clean and bright in celebration of Tet in order to have good luck in the new year.

Many considers tomb sweeping day not only a chance for family reunion but also for children and grandchildren to fulfill their duties and show respect to parents and the ancestors as a whole.

After the tomb sweeping day, Vietnamese families often prepare a six-dish tray of food on the last day of the last lunar month to welcome ancestors back home for Tet. A send-off party will be held on the third or fourth day of the first lunar month, accordingly the local or family tradition./.VNA

Kitchen Gods ceremony a tradition of Tet

The Vietnamese traditional New Year (Tet) festival actually begins on the 23rd of the last month of the lunar year, which falls on February 4 this year, with the “Ong Cong - Ong Tao” (Land Genie and Kitchen Gods) ritual.