Tet Festival of the Buddhist Pagoda Lichtenhagen

Vietnamese New Year in Rostock

Tet — short for »Tết Nguyên Đán« — is the Vietnamese Lunar New Year and Spring Festival and the most significant holiday in the Vietnamese calendar year. The Vietnamese-Buddhist community Loc Uyen in Rostock has been celebrating the festival for years in its pagoda in the Lichtenhagen district with religious ceremonies, a cultural program, and an open community festival, to which German neighbors are also warmly invited.

Program

The festival day traditionally begins with Buddhist devotions and ancestor veneration in the pagoda. This is followed by traditional dragon and lion dances on the grounds, performances by Vietnamese associations, demonstrations of Áo dài traditional costumes, and a rich buffet with Vietnamese specialties such as Bánh chưng, Phở, or spring rolls. Lucky charms in red and gold, incense, and floral arrangements are as much a part of the festival as the ceremonial handover of Lì xì (lucky money) to children.

Local Context

The Loc Uyen Pagoda in Rostock-Lichtenhagen was inaugurated in 2018 and is one of the few Vietnamese-Buddhist places of worship in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Lichtenhagen is a northwestern district of Rostock in the Rostock district and looks back on a long history of Vietnamese migration, which began in GDR times with contract workers. Today, the Tet Festival is a conscious statement for the cultural diversity of the district.