Vietnamese custom, raising Cay neu on Tet holiday.
In Viet Nam, on the days before Tet holliday, almost villages raise Cay neu. Cay neu is a bamboo tree decorated with alot of thing.
Fisrt, some young villagers choose one bamboo tree which is straight and fairly big and measure about twenty metres in length. Then they chop down the tree, bring it to a broad grass. The bamboo tree will be cut down some unnecessary branches.
After decorating the bamboo tree with variety of colour paper on the trunk, the villagers hang on the branches of the tree a ring attached by alot of thing like tradition flag (cờ giải), a carp of paper (cá chép giấy) or one catus branch(cành xương rồng)...expecially, some porcelain plagues (khánh sứ) also are hung on the tree. When the wind blows they hit each other and make joyful tinkles.
People believe that the things hung up on the Cay neu and the tinkles of porcelain plagues will chase away all bad thing and devils. Therefore all people will have a happy New Year.
Raising Cay neu on Vietnamese New year is a beautiful custom of Vietnamese but nowaday this custom is fading more and more.
If you feel free and interested, we can discuss this custom and corect me when you find out wrong things!
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