2027 Tết (Vietnamese New Year)

Tết Nguyên Đán, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, falls on the first day of the lunar calendar — between late January and mid-February — and is the country's most important holiday. Preparations begin with the send-off of the Kitchen Gods on the 23rd day of the last lunar month, followed by house cleaning to sweep away the old year's bad luck and decorating with peach blossoms in the north, yellow apricot blossoms in the south. Families make bánh chưng, a square cake of sticky rice, mung beans and pork wrapped in leaves, offer food on the ancestral altar, and on New Year's Day visit relatives and exchange lucky money (lì xì) in red envelopes; the first visitor of the year is believed to set the family's fortune. The official holiday lasts about a week and many businesses close longer, so buses, trains and flights home sell out weeks ahead. This countdown ticks to midnight Hanoi time on the first day of the lunar year.