you can feel the excitement of tet burning somewhere on the horizon. people are noticeably more jovial and the petty problems of life do not seem to weigh so heavily on their collective conscience. tomorrow is the last day of school. we will have off for the next two weeks.
while we don’t have to actually go to school and teach and what not, we will still be expected to participate in all of the tet activities. we will be asked to go to countless parties (four this friday alone) and visit a number of houses for general chatting and an opportunity to me so-and-so’s parents.
today i held my final american studies class for the next two months. it is a lecture class given to 104 of the seniors and, when it was all over, i wished them a happy, successful and lucky new year. everyone stood up and clapped and cheered and generally felt good about what was to come.
while nothing particularly interesting happened today regarding tet, i would like to comment on some of the other gods that have been imported and accepted into vietnamese culture from china. today i would like to talk about the god of earth (ong dia) and the god of money (ong than tai).
the god of earth is a very fat man that is usually sitting cross legged on some sort of a bowl. he is extra rotund, thus symbolizing the effect of earth and mass. he is jovial, and smiling. in the picture at the bottom, he is the man on the right. when people here build houses, they must go and pray to the earth god for security. it is his good will that will make sure the house stands the test of time and weather.
the god on the left is the god of money. this is an important god if one wants to lead a very comfortable life. people often pray and light an incense stick to him whenever the need arises.
the alter pictured at the bottom is a very typical scene in most people’s homes. it normally sits in a fairly conspicuous place. the tigers on the left and right of the earth and money gods represent the different gods mode of transportation. some gods ride on tigers, others lions. in the middle of the two gods is a small place to burn incense. the smoke of the incense is what actually carries the prayers up to the gods. in the front, there are offerings of tea.
people here are fairly superstitious but they never really let that get in the way of their lives. while they will pray to the earth god when they want to build a house, they will also not let their belief in the earth god dictate too much of what is going on. bills still must be paid, food still must be purchased from the market and life continues.
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