HT. Thích Thắng Hoan By Ven. Thích Trừng Sỹ
VIETNAMESE TẾT HOLIDAYS IN THE UNITED STATES
We have just welcomed the US New Year, now we prepare to celebrate the upcoming Vietnamese New Year. The United States is the country of many immigrants and the place to gather many different cultures. The Vietnamese community is the fourth largest community of Asians in the United States.
Over the past fifty years, our community has given a significant part in the activities of this country, including culture, religion, and customs, etc.
Vietnamese TẾT holiday is a sacred day for people far away from Vietnam, is the day to assert a race; is the day to ask me to come here from which country.
The Vietnamese TẾT is the day that inspires Americans through the custom from the Eastern direction. Buddhism and Tet holiday affirmed its responsibility and attachment for two thousand years.
Buddhism has a ceremony of Maitreya Buddha on the First Day of the New Year. He is the Buddha of joy and fullness. Vietnamese customs, on the First Days of the year, people go and pay homage to the Buddha to wish life of the whole year to be auspicious. Starting is the end.
On the first days of the year, we vow to live in joy, this year, we certainly get more blessed and less difficult. There are many great benefits in this world, but without the welfare of joy, all sweet fruits will become bitter. The Buddha’s children regularly contemplate a new day, that asking for their hearts to be happy, whether today is a day of snowstorms or sunshine. This life is not so bad, only our hearts are too bad. Step forward and start the new day. This step is in concentration and wisdom with a heart of extended practice.
Tết holidays have very good customs at the Temple. It was about the pagoda to collect lucky gift. This lucky gift can be a fruit, a flower branch offered to Buddha or a vegetarian meal at the Temple, especially a sentence taught by the Buddha with the therapeutic treatment and brought benefits to many people. It is worth praising, the Vietnamese Temples in the United States all organize the lucky meals of first year for Buddhists and non-Buddhists. We have the opportunity to meet, greet each other and eat together in the Temple yard on a “new” day of the new year. It is worth praising, the Vietnamese Temples in the United States all organize the lucky meals of first year for Buddhists and non-Buddhists. We have the opportunity to meet, greet each other and eat together in the Temple yard on a “new” day of the new year.
Vietnamese people in cities have few people, we often ask, how to find a bit of Tết atmosphere in the middle of the cold and ice land? – Temple! We are aware that, why a Temple is set up in America and the temple, knowing what to do for Vietnamese and Americans here: Dedication of the long -standing culture of Vietnamese Buddhism in the country outside the motherland.
This year Tết holidays fall on weekends. We have two Tết holidays. Parents will have more time to help their children and grandchildren know about Tết holidays. By taking children and descendants to the Temple. Despite being born and raised in the United States, our children and descendants have the wish and desire to make their American country richer cultural, customs, and religion. Therefore, our children and descendants need to understand and love the good customs of their ancestors, including religion. We join hands to preserve the good things of the race to make our country live more scents and florals because it is our life and our children and descendants.
https://phapnhan.org/tv/tet-viet-o-hoa-ky/
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