中国新年和越南新年有多相似？ [美国媒体]

How similar is Chinese New Year and Vietnamese New Year?

中国新年和越南新年有多相似？

Minh Tri
They are the same thing. Any Vietnamese who tries to tell you that they’re different is just too stubborn to accept the truth.
No matter whether we like it or not, we must give credit where credit is due.
The ancient Chinese perfected their calendar system and since they were the dominant force, neighboring countries adopted that system.
It was mandatory for Vietnam, Japan and Korea to use the Chinese calendar because of China’s political dominance. Just like today all countries in the world use the Gregorian Calendar whether they like it or not. Japan, Korea and Vietnam received enormous cultural influences from China and adopted most Chinese traditional holidays. Just like today, all countries put on display for Christmas because of Western influence.
It is a fact that most traditions observed during Vietnamese New Year are derived and shared with Chinese culture. Traditions like lion dancing, red envelopes, red couplets, give new year greetings to relatives and the elders, light incense and worship ancestors. There are also superstitions such as not sweeping your house on first new year day. Of course, there are minor differences, but they are different even within China and within Vietnam. These minor differences are not big enough to completely disregard the holiday of its Chinese origin.
Here are common arguments (excuses) Vietnamese use and my refute:
1.All agriculture countries observe the lunar new year.
Yes but in fact, with the exception of Chinese people, only Vietnamese and Koreans celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year. All other countries with lunar calendar celebrate their new year at a different time because there is NO SINGLE lunar calendar. The Chinese calendar is very different from all other lunar calendars
2. Historical records show that Vietnamese have celebrated Lunar New year far longer than the Chinese and before Chinese contact
The coincidence between Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean New Year is too large to consider this a logical argument. If you think about it, it makes no sense that China, a big powerful country, would have adopted a holiday of a people that they were ruling over as their biggest holiday. It makes even less sense that the Koreans would also accepted this holiday. If you think about it Vietnamese never ruled China, but Chinese have ruled Vietnam for more than 1000 years.
3. China is not the only one with Lunar New Year. All Southeast Asian countries celebrate it too, thus it should not be Chinese New Year
I always feel like facepalming with this comment. In fact, those people celebrating Chinese New Year in Southeast Asia are ethnic Chinese people. There are large Chinese communities in southeast Asia. Again, besides the Chinese, only Vietnamese and Koreans celebrate the Chinese New Year. Next time when a Vietnamese point to you that Thai and Malaysians also celebrate Lunar New Year, kindly remind them that those are ethnic Chinese. And kindly remind them also that the majority of Singaporeans are ethnic Chinese.
4. Chinese and Vietnamese New Year occur at a different time
I believe every few decades Chinese New Year and Vietnamese New Year will have a time difference of one day due to the 1 hour difference between Vietnam and China. This is really a ridiculous argument because the difference caused by time zones is quite insignificant. If you think about it, US and Australia celebrate New Year on a different day because of the time difference…
Nationalism has made many Vietnamese annoying and unbearable, and also losing any sense of logical reasoning.

它们就是一回事。任何一个想告诉你它们不一样的越南人都是固执地无法接受这个事实。
不管我们喜不喜欢，我们必须要实事求是。
古代中国完善了他们的历法制度，由于它们是区域主导力量，邻国也采用了这一制度。

由于中国的主导地位，越南、日本和韩国必须使用中国历法。就像今天一样，世界上所有的国家都使用公历，不管他们喜欢与否。日本、韩国和越南受到了中国巨大的文化影响，并采用了大多数中国传统节日。就像今天一样，所有的国家都因为西方的影响而过圣诞节。
越南新年期间的大多数传统都是源自中国文化，并与中国文化共享，这是事实。像舞狮、红包、红对联、向亲戚和长者致以新年的问候、点香敬拜祖先等传统。还有一些迷信，比如在新年的第一天不要打扫你的房子。当然，两者之间也有一些微小的差异，但即使在中国内部和越南内部，它们也是不同的。这些微小的差异不足以完全忽视这是源于中国的节日。

以下是越南人常用的论点(借口)和我的反驳：
1.所有的农业国家都庆祝农历新年。
是的，但事实上，除了中国人，只有越南和韩国人庆祝中国农历新年。所有其他有农历的国家都在不同的时间庆祝他们的新年，因为没有一个“统一的”农历。中国的历法与所有其他的月历都有很大的不同。



Nguyen Phuong
It is a ridiculous question.
If there is any difference then those differences are different people, different land,…
They are the same.
When you think about Vietnam, you are thinking about a lot China. Communism, family value, worshipping ancestors, Confucius’ s teachings, Lao tzu‘ s teaching, Vietnamese new year,….
We are influenced too much by “past” Chinese empires.
We know China and the Chinese well. We are China’ s neighbor. If we like we could be a means for the West (a lot of weapons like missiles and nuclear weapons could be put in lands of Vietnam) to destroy China. But we don’t do this. It is the best for China not to make us as their enemy. Because we know them better than most other nations on the Earth and we are very near China.
China is dangerous for us and we are dangerous for China because we are near China and the West does not want to see that China will surpass them. China and we are asian people. We are really difficult to deal with China : to hate or to love but we must cooperate with China.
US fears that Cuba is a means for Russia to destroy US.
We are so similar to China, no other nation could. Sometimes, i really hate those similarities. In the past, China’ s importance was so big for Vietnam.:)
I always see that Lunar New Year reminds us that we are an asian nation and it is a link with China. And we value Lunar New Year because we value our family and relatives, lazy, cozy days. Lunar New Year is very important to us. As Christmas is important to Christianity.
We don’t want to remove Lunar New Year as a lot of fools want it because they do not like China. Japan dit it because Japan is so proud and wants to be a center of Asia and they don’t like China, hate China’ s influence.

这是个荒谬的问题。
如果有什么不同，那么不同的只是人和土地…
他们是一样的。

当你想到越南的时候，你会想到很多中国的东西：GC主义，家庭价值，崇拜祖先，孔子的教导，老子的教导，越南新年，…
我们受“过去”中国帝国的影响太大了。

我们很了解中国和中国人。我们是中国的邻居。如果我们愿意，我们可以成为西方国家摧毁中国的桥头堡（比如在越南放置导弹和核武器这些东西）。但我们不去这么做。中国最好不要把我们当作敌人。因为我们比地球上大多数其他国家都更了解他们，而且我们离中国很近。

中国对我们是危险的，我们对中国也是危险的，因为我们离中国很近，西方不想看到中国超越他们。中国和我们是亚洲人。我们真的很难处理和中国的关系：恨还是爱，但我们必须与中国合作。

美国担心古巴是俄罗斯摧毁美国的手段。
我们与中国如此相似，以至于任何其他国家都无法做到这一点。有时候，我真的很讨厌这些相似之处。但在过去，中国对越南的重要性是如此之大。:)

我一直把农历新年是对我们是一个亚洲国家，是一个我们与中国的联系的提醒。我们重视农历新年，因为我们珍惜我们的家人和亲戚，一起过一段懒惰，舒适的日子。农历新年对我们很重要。正如圣诞节对基督教很重要。

虽然许多傻瓜因为他们不喜欢中国就想要移除农历新年，但我们不想取消农历新年。日本之所以这么做，是因为日本很骄傲，想成为亚洲的中心，他们不喜欢中国，讨厌中国的影响力。



Anonymous
They’re the same thing, like Korea , Taiwan , Malaysia Chinese , Singapore Chinese….
For example
we workship Táo quan- Kitchen God 灶君, As the old year ends, he goes to heaven to discuss the family's situation with the Jade Emperor, the King of Heaven.
Gifts are the universal response to invitations to children do receive Red envelope
The house is decorated with red lantern ( defend on family )
And this ~_~
But i must say , Vietnamese are very anti-China today , nobody call that “Chinese New Year” but Tet Am Lich - Lunar New Year
And a bad news for people interesting in Old Chinese culutre influence :
Quote : “ We are no longer living in a time when people are worried about culure , many Vietnamese condemned Lunar New Year or “Chinese New Year” no longer suitable for Vietnam , that we will remove it like Japan did…… ”

他们是一样的，像韩国，台湾，马来西亚华人，新加坡华人都过这个节日…
比如：

1.我们1会拜祭灶君，因为随着旧年的结束，他会去天庭与玉皇大帝讨论家庭的情况。
2.红包是给儿童的普遍礼物
3.房子装饰着红灯笼(保护家庭)
4.还有这个 ~_~



但我必须说，越南人今天是非常不喜欢中国的，没有人把它叫做“中国新年”，而只称它为“农历新年”。
还有一个对那些对中国古代文化影响感兴趣的人来说的坏消息：
引文：“我们不再生活在一个人们担心文化的时代，许多越南人谴责农历新年或“中国新年”不再适合越南，我们会像日本那样除掉它......”

Vu Phuong
I think there are a few differences.
In the zodiac system we have cat instead of rabbit like Chinese zodiac system.
The food is different too, as Vietnamese people have their traditional cake ( bánh chưng) and other traditional food (nem, xôi, canh măng, giò,…). And of course, you can’t celebrate Tet holiday’s feast without boiled chicken.
Vietnamese decorate their house with hoa đào (peach blossom tree) or hoa mai (a type of tree with yellow flowers). They don’t usually use red lattern or paper cuttings like Chinese do.
On the first day of Tet, we have a tradition called “xông nhà”. We believe that the first visitor of the year will determine the fortune and luck for the entire year, so this person must be selected carefully. Chinese people don’t have this custom.
Also, in China, the lucky money is given to kids by adults. In Vietnam, I’ve seen people giving lucky money to the elderly as well.
Chinese people light the firecrackers on New Year. Vietnamese people can’t do that because of the ban on private purchase of firecrackers and fireworks.
In conclusion, both New Year holidays may share some similarities, but there are also differences, because no two cultures are the same.

我觉得他们之间有一些差异。
1.在十二生肖系统中，我们有猫而不是像中国十二生肖那样的兔子。
2.食物也是不同的，因为越南人民有他们的传统蛋糕(bánhưng)和其他传统食物(nem，x i，canh măng，gi aoo，…)。当然，要过农历新年你必须要宰只鸡。
3.越南人用桃花树(Hoađào)或和麦树(一种黄色花朵的树)装饰他们的房子。他们通常不像中国人那样使用红花纹或剪纸。

4.在新年的第一天，我们有一个叫做““xông nhà”的传统。我们相信，今年的第一位访客将决定全年的运气和运势，因此必须仔细挑选这个人。中国人没有这种习俗。
5.另外，在中国，成年人会给孩子们红包。在越南，我也见过人们给老人们钱。
6.中国人在新年燃放鞭炮。越南人民不能这样做，因为政府禁止私人购买鞭炮和烟花。
总之，这两个新年假期可能有一些相似之处，但也有不同之处，因为没有两种文化是相同的。

Hoan Nguyen, Senior manager (2005-present)
I hope I don't offend my fellow Vietnamese people, but this has to be said.
Very similar. Vietnam was heavily influenced by Chinese culture. Overly nationalistic Vietnamese people like to pretend they're totally different, but they are not. I never understood why they do this, cause it's just a festival and I think Vietnamese people have better things to think about. I guess some people worry that admiting Chinese influence makes us seem weak, but I think being strong starts with embracing the truth and not bending history to suit our needs or what we want to believe.
Also, I'm pretty certain that many of our ancestors probably admired Han culture, administration, science, literature, the arts etc. I'd bet that even Tran Hung Dao and Le Loi probably did too… so if these guys can admire ancient Chinese culture and traditions, why can't we? It's the same in Europe. You don't hear about French or Germans lamenting the impact of the Romans on their traditions do we?
I stress that there is a difference between ancient Han culture and China today. Post cultural revolution, I don't think too many Vietnamese people admire Chinese culture anymore. No offence to Chinese people, but they really shot themselves in the foot and destroyed so much wonder and beauty. I really hope that once China fully develops they can rediscover the great achievements of their past.

我希望我不会冒犯我的越南同胞，但这是必须说的。
非常相似。越南深受中国文化的影响。过度民族主义的越南人民喜欢假装他们完全不同，但事实并非如此。我从来不明白他们为什么这么做，因为这只是一个节日，我认为越南人有更重要的事情要考虑。我想有些人担心中国的影响力会让我们显得软弱，但我认为坚强是从接受事实开始，而不是为了适应我们的需要或我们想要的东西而扭曲历史。



Hoan Nguyen
Agreed brother! :)
Better yet, I wish we were more influenced by American or English culture!

同意，兄弟！:)
最好的是我希望我们能更多地受到美国或英国文化的影响！

Cheong Tee
Fair and neutral enough. Just that for a balance, when you think of China did something bad to Vietnam in ancient time, remember that Vietnam had also done something bad to others too. Also there had been many good influence due to China on Vietnam, except nationalism tends to forget those good things.

挺公平和中立。只是为了平衡一下，当你想到中国在古代对越南做了坏事的时候，记住越南也对别人做了同样的坏事。此外，中国对越南也有许多好的影响，只有那些民族主义者倾向于忘记那些好的事情。