The Lunar New Year (commonly known as the Chinese New Year) is tomorrow! I’m so excited to finally share this collaboration that my friend Joan La (A Cup of Joan) and I have been working on. Joan is an ethical, vegan fashion blogger. Her content exists in a genre somewhere between storytelling, activism, and art. Ultimate goals–I love this babe so much!

I love the way Joan expresses herself and stands up for what she believes in. I’m Vietnamese (with some Chinese, but culturally I’m Viet) and Joan is Korean. We have passionately discussed the need for a bigger presence of Asian American and persons of color in the vegan movement. We’ve both noted that vegan versions of traditional Asian dishes are not as widely known, and it’s especially irksome when our cultural food is either looked down on or appropriated by “trendsetters” with no cultural context (vegan fish sauce as a start up venture, for example…). I could go into it more but this post is going to be long as it is, so I must save that for another time–let’s get to the good stuff! For our CNY collaboration, we decided to each post a recipe and share interviews with our moms, to celebrate our different cultures and share the similarities. Yesss, Asian female empowerment and solidarity! I urge you to check out Joan’s post here, and follow her beautiful inspiring Instagram here–you won’t regret it.

Chinese New Year is about starting anew, making room for the future blessings to come. I actually made some lemon lavender ginger candy the other day, to represent this refreshing new energy. In Vietnamese culture, it’s customary to clean out your house by the first day of the year, and on the first three days of the year, it’s considered bad luck to sweep the house, because you don’t want to sweep out any incoming blessings. Now, more than ever, it is imperative that we all reflect on our hearts, and make room for more love, instead of shutting love out.

I try to keep this blog lighthearted, but my spirit is weary and hurting, and right now, I must express myself authentically–to do otherwise would be a disservice to the people I care about, myself, and you, the reader.

What does the Lunar New Year (Tết) mean to Vietnamese culture?

Mom: Tết is the new start of everything. Everyone hopes for a better year than last year. That’s why everything is red and gold, for good luck. Just forget about the old, bad luck–it’s over. They want to start something new, better. Since it’s about beginning anew, if people want to start a new diet, or start a new habit, they start at the new year.

It’s a time of celebration and people get to rest with their family. Usually the poor people in the country, they work so hard all year, and Tết is the only time they can rest, for a week or sometimes a whole month, if they can afford it. Typically, my family took off work for a week to ten days. All of the businesses are closed during Tết—if you want to get a shirt tailored or something, no one will be open. Except restaurants, they have to stay open.

On the first day of Tết, people in Vietnam mostly always ăn chay (eat vegetarian–basically vegan, actually). Because they believe that first day of Tết, if you ăn chay, it’s like you’re eating that way the whole year. It’s a symbolic way to start the new year–in a peaceful state of mind. Because they believe ăn chay is good and peaceful, but they can’t commit to it for the whole year, so they try to do it the first day of the year, at the very least–it’s also good luck to do this. For people who practice Buddhism in Vietnam, they wish they could be vegetarian or vegan the rest of the year, they wish so, but they cannot or do not want to do it. It’s much easier now to ăn chay–anyone who has a sincere heart can definitely do it, with the grace of God. I went vegetarian in 1990 (now I’m vegan).

What was Tết like in your hometown? And what was it like after you came to the states? What traditions did you bring over? 

Mom: Well, school was closed, of course. Your grandma and grandpa didn’t work in fields, but they still needed to rest from their business.

On the first day of the year, we would all put on new clothes, chúc tết (exchange New Year’s wishes), and then we would go to the temple, to get our fortunes told. Afterwards, we went to your great grandmother’s house, to eat spring rolls and other finger foods–usually for Tết, you eat playful food, finger food, basically. And after that, we went back home, to gamble and eat with the family. Your grandpa didn’t allow gambling ever, but only for Tết, just for fun, in the house. I was never really excited about that, though.

Actually, the days leading up to Tết are more exciting, because of the night market. That’s what I loved most. When I was young, your grandpa didn’t let us go anywhere. He was so strict! It was like jail. We usually sat upstairs, in the balcony, watching people going to the theater and stuff, yearning to go play. He was paranoid that we would go party or misbehave—he just wanted us to stay home to study. But we figured out a way to go out–that’s a story for another time.

My best friend’s house was right next to the market. At night, we would go to the market to see everything and walk around–they were famous for selling watermelon, your grandpa’s favorite. Back then, it was so fun–we liked to sit and people watch. We would buy nước mía (sweet sugar cane juice), and bánh chuối nướng (crispy, baked banana cake). During that time, there’s a lot of food everywhere, just like the state fair here, in Oklahoma or Texas. They sold chè, bánh mì, and chuối chiên, which you know, is my favorite…they had all my favorites! I miss that, it’s a good memory. I’m glad you asked me about this. That was my favorite memory of Tết in my hometown.

And the flowers–they sell all kinds of fruits and flowers at the market—mostly yellow mai blossoms, and peach blossoms in the northern region. They sell these flowers by the branch–it’s very beautiful and interesting. Actually, the markets are open all day and all night. But at night, it’s much prettier, because they have lights all over, and each shop was under an umbrella. Umbrellas acted as dividers. So, we liked to go around and enjoy the market under all those umbrellas. Everyone was dressed very colorfully. If we have a chance, I would love to take you to see it.

It’s different here in the U.S. We don’t celebrate it as much here. On the outside, it’s just another day. It’s not as exciting. In the streets, there’s no Tết spirit in the air, like in Vietnam. Here, we just enjoy Tết inside the family. Your aunt always takes the day off, and the night before the new year, she always goes to the temple with your grandma.

We still give out lì xì–that’s always the younger generation’s favorite. Traditionally, the younger family members are expected to chúc tết (express your wishes and intentions for) the older members, and they receive well wishes and lì xì in return. But you’re expected to chúc tết elders either way, it doesn’t matter whether you get a red envelope or not. Older people always take red envelopes with them, to give to the kids.  In Vietnam, the temple always had a mai blossom tree, with lì xì (lucky red envelopes with money) hanging from it. We would hái lộc đầu năm (pick money for the first of the year). Usually inside, it was like 10 cents and an aphorism. Mainly, your grandpa would give us the best lì xì—the amount he would give was always a lot! We would always wonder how much we would get.

serves 5-6

Total time: 20-30 minutes
Ingredients:

• 3 medium organic beets, washed and cubed
• 2 medium organic carrots, cut into coins
• 3 potatoes, washed, peeled, and diced
• 1 handful snow fungus mushroom (found at most Asian markets, dried)
• at least 3 tablespoons of fresh organic ginger, smashed or minced
• about 2.5 L of water
• 8 oz sliced mushrooms (optional)
• 8 oz cubed tofu (optional)
• sea salt, mushroom powder, miso and low sodium tamari, and/or liquid aminos (to taste–my mom and I almost never measure)
• cilantro, to garnish

Method:

1. Rinse the snow fungus mushroom and submerge it in water, to soften it.
2. Add the carrots, beets, and half of the ginger called for to a medium pot filled with at least a couple liters of water. Bring veggies to a boil.
3. Next, add the potatoes to the pot. Bring to a boil.
4. Drain the snow fungus mushroom and chop it roughly.
5. Throw in the last of the ginger, and the chopped snow fungus mushroom.
6. Season the broth, using sea salt, low sodium tamari, and/or liquid aminos, to your taste. We started with a scant teaspoon of sea salt and a teaspoon of mushroom powder and went from there.
7. If using, sauté mushrooms with some garlic and add them to the broth.
8. Enjoy the soup hot, with some fresh cilantro and your loved ones. My mom likes to serve this with quinoa, rice, or sometimes noodles, and something savory. I like to add kale. It’s up to you.

Here is my wish for you, for the upcoming Year of the Rooster. Chúc Mừng Năm Mới!

I hope you have a beautiful new year, filled with all the best blessings life has to offer. You will try new things, meet and rise above challenges and obstacles, and help the world in the ways you know best. You will give love to others, receive it, and watch as your heart grows beyond your imagination. I wish all of this for you, but it can only happen if you manifest it yourself. 

Thanks for reading, and if you haven’t already, don’t forget to enjoy Joan’s post!