Little pieces of memories of the first generation immigrants in Czechia

When I was younger my family used to celebrate Tết in a very traditional way. Despite our family’s lack of resources, my mother would always make sure that our home was cleaned and slightly decorated with handmade decorations for the new year at least. However, due to a lack of funds we were unable to hang red banners and lanterns around the house, which symbolize good fortune and prosperity.

One of the highlights of Tết for me was always the food, which was important during Tết celebrations for families like ours who were struggling to make ends meet. To make sure we had enough food for the occasion my mother would put money aside all year. Getting meat was really difficult and expensive back then, so we were all forced to split every piece of it. 

At this time, it was impossible to have friends over because the occasion itself was too difficult and demanding to organise so inviting them was not the option to do so. My family would even sell our old belongings or take on extra work to afford traditional Tết foods like bánh chưng (a sticky rice cake with pork and mung beans), bánh tét (a cylindrical rice cake filled with pork and beans), and fresh fruit. 

However, as I grew older I began to notice changes in the way that Tết was celebrated. With Vietnam’s economic growth some families had access to flexible jobs with greater income outside the country, including ours. In order to acquire more money for my family to live a better and prosperous life, my older siblings and I would move abroad and send earned money to the family back in Vietnam. Despite the fact that it would occasionally be quite difficult, especially for our mother who was frequently alone, we decided to adopt this method of supporting the family. My siblings and I were later able to pay our mother back for dealing with the tough times while taking care of us all by herself with the money we earned over the ensuing years. Later then, we could finally afford a little bit more expensive family celebrations with an emphasis on pleasant and stress-free situations throughout the holidays.

Nowadays, many families, including mine, celebrate Tết differently. While we still clean and decorate our homes, we can now purchase decorations rather than making them ourselves. My family can now afford to eat more traditional meals, buy presents and invite our friends to share the atmosphere of the occasion with each other.

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