Tết by the sea

There is no bigger week in Vietnam than Tết, the Lunar New Year. It falls in late January or February, following the lunar calendar, and it is when families gather, homes are cleaned and decorated, and people try to start the year on the right foot. Nha Trang celebrates it in its own way: half city holiday, half beach town.

The weeks before

You can feel Tết coming. Streets fill with pots of yellow apricot blossom and kumquat trees, carried home on the back of motorbikes. Markets get busier, and stalls sell candied fruits, red envelopes and decorations in red and gold. Families prepare traditional food, including bánh tét, sticky rice cakes wrapped in banana leaves that are common in the south and centre of the country.

Around the city, there are usually decorations, flower displays and public celebrations, with fireworks in some years on New Year’s Eve.

The holiday itself

On the first days of the new year, the city slows down. Many small businesses close as owners go home to their families, and the streets can feel unusually calm. People visit relatives, pay respects at family altars and go to pagodas to pray for luck. Children receive lì xì, small red envelopes of money, from older relatives.

The best image of Tết in Nha Trang may be the seafront in the late afternoon: families in new clothes, taking photographs against the sea.

Many people dress up in new clothes or the áo dài, and the beach and the promenade fill with families walking, eating and taking photos. It is a lovely time to watch the city enjoy itself.

Should you visit during Tết?

It depends on what you want. If you hope to eat at a particular small stall, it may be closed. Prices for some services can go up, and transport is busy. On the other hand, you will see the city at its most festive and most family-centred, and the mood is warm and welcoming.

Plan ahead, keep your schedule flexible and treat the closures as part of the experience. You are visiting during the week that matters most to the people who live here.

If you stay into the days after the holiday, you will see the city wake up again: shutters going up, stalls returning to their corners and the first boats heading back out to sea for the new year.