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A Family Celebrates the Vietnamese New Year - Part 2 of 3 Uyen
Thanh from Vietnam At 12:00 a.m. the next day, which was called the New Year Eve, everybody was almost ready to celebrate the New Year. My father would appear first in the living room, look around the room the last time, and arrange the glasses and cups on the table, although they were organized perfectly. Traditional food was quickly laid on the altar in order to be observed as an ancestor cult by my parents. Right after the white trails of smoke from incense spreading out the air in mild smell, we knew that the New Year had started. "Yeah! Let's go!" my two brothers exclaimed and ran out into the front yard immediately with lighters in their hands. The yard was soon dazzling with the fire flecks of the firecrackers. The crackers boomed and banged for a while. My sister and I had to close up our ears by hand in order to be away from the strong cracker sound. My brothers used to guffaw and laugh at us. My father passionately looked at the flecks and laughed heartily. My mother reappeared timely at the door, smiled with all of us and mildly knitted her eyebrow soon after that because of that sound. Once the sound and fire stopped, we continued walking out of the house to see and hear the burnt firecrackers from the neighbors around us. In the dark sky, you would see the flakes of fire everywhere, so it looked like you were traveling close to the star planets. Soon after that, the red-yellow dragon appeared at the corner of the street with the cheerful sound of the drum to be ready for a dragon dancing. We entirely believed that this activity could pick up the luckiness for a whole year. The dragon started dancing vigorously in the spirited sound of drum and crackers. At the end of the dragon dance, which lasted almost an hour and attracted an extreme huge crowd around it, we came back home, wished a Happy New Year to each other, and took a rest to be ready for the morning.
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