The week before Tet

In my family, Tet does not start on the first day of the lunar new year. It starts about a week earlier, when my mother gives everyone a job. My father climbs a ladder to wash the ceiling fan. My brother polishes the brass bowls on the family altar. Every year I draw the short straw and get the worst job of all: cleaning the kitchen.

Cleaning before Tet is an old Vietnamese tradition. People believe that dust and dirt carry the bad luck of the old year, and they want to get rid of it before the new one begins. In other words, every family wants to start the year with a clean slate. However, you should not sweep the floor during the first days of Tet, or you might sweep your good luck away. That is why everything has to be done in advance.

To be honest, I used to hate this week. As a teenager, I wanted to go out with my friends, not scrub pots. Everything changed after I moved to Hanoi for university. I could only come home for a few days each year, and I began to miss the noise of the whole family working together. Now I look forward to it.

The cleaning is also a chance to talk. As we work, my parents tell stories about Tet when they were children, when a box of sweets was a luxury and new clothes came once a year. My grandmother sits in the yard and gives orders, even though she cannot climb ladders any more. Everyone laughs at her jokes, especially my father, who has heard them many times.

By the end of the week, the house smells of soap and fresh flowers, and the altar shines. We are exhausted but happy. For me, this is the real start of the new year: not the fireworks at midnight, but a clean house and a family that worked side by side to get it ready.