VIII. Choose the item among A, B, C or D that best answers the question about the passage.
Colourful Tet Festival of Northwestern Ethnic Minorities
The Hmong in Hoa Binh province celebrate Tet one month earlier than the usual Tet in Viet Nam. It is a tradition that the New Year starts with the rooster sound on the first day of Tet. On the previous night, people set up a full table of food and put it on the altar to worship the ancestors. After that, they have a big meal with wine and wait until hearing the first rooster sound. Tet of Hmong people are full of social activities, and traditional games like horse racing, bow shooting, blow cheerfully their traditional woodwind instrument called ‘khen’ play swings and sing in the large yard. They eat ‘Day’ cake (a plain round sticky rice cake).
To the Muong, Tet is the most important event of the year. On Tet, each family prepares a big meal to worship their ancestors and gods. A table often requires Chung cake, honey, wine, sticky rice, boiled meat, some money, a bowl of water and some salt. The old often wish their children health and good luck. To make the atmosphere warm and joyful, Muong people often sing traditional songs together during the meal.
From January 25lh, after finishing cleaning and decorating the house, the Thai will go to local markets to shop for Tet. Of many things they buy, two sugarcane trees are compulsory. It is a custom that they bind the two trees on the two side edges of the altar, serving as a stick connecting land and the sky, guiding their ancestors back to the ground for Tet. On New Year's Eve, Thai people will light up their stoves to prepare the food welcoming the New Year. Drums and gongs spread out their cheerful melodies, and when the clock strikes 12, people in the village will go to the stream to take some water. The tradition is that if one uses the water from the source to drink and wash the face at the first time of the New Year, that person and the family will be healthy and lucky for the rest of the year.
