All around the world, people celebrate the coming of a new year with traditions from their country. One of the most unforgettable days of the year according to my culture would be Tet. Tet is another name for the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. Tet is a celebration of a new beginning and marks the start of the lunar calendar year. Tet is more important to my culture than Christmas and Thanksgiving combined. Although New Year's is not all celebrated on the same day, many cultures, including the Americans, celebrate New Year's with similar and different cultural traditions. Similarities and differences of my cultural New Year's compared to the American New Year's would be where it originated from, the way it is celebrated, and the values it may hold.
             The Vietnamese New Year's comes sometime between January 21 and February 19 according to the lunar calendar. It is known that my ancestors have celebrated this holiday for over 4000 years. There is little known about the origin of Tet except that it originated from China. The Vietnamese adapted to the Chinese culture because the two countries are next to each other. The origin of the Chinese New Year's itself is centuries old, therefore it is too old to actually be traced. However, there are many myths about Tet in my grandparents tell me related to the origination of Tet. In one myth, the monster, Nian, had the power to eat up all the people in a village in one big bite. People in the town were very scared of Nian but one day an old man came to rescue the town. The old man asked Nian, "I know you can eat people, but can you eat other beasts instead of people who are not worthy opponents? " Nian then accepted the old man's challenge and ate the beasts that had harassed the villagers and their farm animals for years. At the end of the myth, Nian left and that day was remembered as New Year's because the villagers celebrated a new beginning. The American New Year's, also like the Viet...