Similar to the West, international New Year’s Day is an official public holiday in Vietnam. The tourist industry goes on, shops, restaurants and travel agencies are open. 

What is Tết?
The biggest and most important festival of the year.  Tết Nguyên Đán or shortened as Tết is the Vietnamese New Year and in its origins the same holiday as Chinese New Year. This holiday takes place somewhere between the last week in January and the third week of February, on the night of the new moon, the exact dates vary every year. The official party takes one week, although the preparations start earlier. 
The Vietnamese people make sure their house is clean and tidy, some even repaint their house to start the new year in a good manor. 
Tết is a party of ancestral worship. Houses and temples are decorated with red and gold, and at altars all around the country offers are made to the ancestors. Families eat traditional bamboo soup and a special kind of ‘sticky rice’. On the altars, all the food which is eaten during Tết, is also sacrificed to the ancestors.  
Every Vietnamese person becomes a year older during Tết. Age isn’t measured on the birthday of a Vietnamese person but at the start of the new year on the moon calendar. 
According to the tradition mostly kids and older people receive ‘lucky money’. This is a red and gold envelope filled with a small amount of cash money, which brings luck. If you’re visiting Vietnam during Tết, buy a few of those little red and gold envelopes put 5000 VND (0,20 cents) inside and hand them out to Children on the street. The smile you are rewarded with will stay with you for a long time. 
It’s also possible that a family invites you over to eat with them. A foreigner in your house during Tết brings prosperity, fortune and health in the new year. So don’t refuse and join in on this once in a lifetime intercultural meeting. 

Planning your trip during Tết.
During Tết the whole country comes to a stop. Just before Tết, many Vietnamese travel to their family, which makes it hard to get tickets for public transport. Vietnamese people eat with their families, so the streets are empty and many shops, restaurant, museums and government buildings are closed. 
Banks are also closed during Tết and ATMs aren’t refilled during these days. So if you are in Vietnam stock up on cash well ahead of the start of the holiday so you won’t run short of Vietnamese Dong!
When you are in Vietnam during Tết it’s important to carefully plan what you want to do and book everything in advance. 

On this day the Hung Kings are honored. The Hung Kings are considered the first leaders of Vietnam. It’s celebrated by bringing offers to altars throughout the country and in many different temples. Government offices are closed and banks are closed (ATMs are in use). Restaurants, shops and travel agencies usually stay open. Public transport also runs normally.

On the 30th of April 1975 Saigon was liberated. The official end of the war in Vietnam between north and south, Vietnam was reunited. Government offices are closed and banks are closed (ATMs are in use). Restaurants, shops and travel agencies usually stay open. Public transport also runs normally. 

Planning your trip during Reunification Day and International Labor Day
On April 30 and May 1 Reunification Day and International Labor Day are consecutive national holidays. Many Vietnamese travel or go on holidays in a period of approximately 10 days around these 2 national holidays. This means that flight tickets, train tickets and bus tickets are sold out quick. Hotels also fill up quickly in this period. So if you are in Vietnam during this time make sure that you book your tickets and hotels in advance. 
If you travel during this period keep in mind that train stations, bus stations and airports are busy, so plan more time for traveling.

Worldwide this day is recognized as International Labor Day. In the socialist state Vietnam this is a official day off. Government offices ar e closed and banks are closed (ATMs are in use). Restaurants, shops and travel agencies usually stay open. Public transport also runs normally.

Planning your trip during Reunification Day and International Labor Day
On April 30 and May 1 Reunification Day and International Labor Day are consecutive national holidays. Many Vietnamese travel or go on holidays in a period of approximately 10 days around these 2 national holidays. This means that flight tickets, train tickets and bus tickets are sold out quick. Hotels also fill up quickly in this period. So if you are in Vietnam during this time make sure that you book your tickets and hotels in advance. 
If you travel during this period keep in mind that train stations, bus stations and airports are busy, so plan more time for traveling.

On September 2, 1945 after ending the Japanese occupation, president Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam’s independence as a country. It took another nine years before the French were finally defeated. Nevertheless since September 2, 1945 this day is celebrated as Independence Day. On Ba Dinh Square there is a parade and there are fireworks.  
Government offices are closed and banks are closed (ATMs are in use). Restaurants, shops and travel agencies usually stay open. Public transport also runs normally. 

Tet The most important date in the Vietnamese festival calendar is New Year (Tet Nguyen Dan). After an initial jamboree, Tet is largely a family occasion when offices are shut, and many shops and restaurants may close for the seven-day festival. Officially only the first four days are public holidays, though many people take the whole week. First to seventh days of first lunar month; late January to mid-February.
Tay Son Festival Martial arts demonstrations in Tay Son District, plus garlanded elephants on parade. Fifth day of first lunar month; late January to mid-February.
Water-Puppet Festival As part of the Tet celebrations a festival of puppetry is held at Thay Pagoda, west of Hanoi. Fifth to seventh days of first lunar month; February.
Lim Singing Festival Two weeks after Tet, Lim village near Bac Ninh, in the Red River Delta, resounds to the harmonies of “alternate singing” (quan ho) as men and women fling improvised lyrics back and forth. Thirteenth to fifteenth days of the first lunar month; February–March.
Hai Ba Trung Festival The two Trung sisters are honoured with a parade and dancing at Hanoi’s Hai Ba Trung temple. Sixth day of the second lunar month; March.
Perfume Pagoda Vietnam’s most famous pilgrimage site is Chua Huong, west of Hanoi. Thousands of Buddhist pilgrims flock to the pagoda for the festival, which climaxes on the full moon (fourteenth or fifteenth day) of the second month, though the pilgrimage continues for a month either side; March–April.
Den Ba Chua Kho The full moon of the second month sees Hanoians congregating at this temple near Bac Ninh, to petition the goddess for success in business; March–April.
Thanh Minh Ancestral graves are cleaned and offerings of food, flowers and paper votive objects made at the beginning of the third lunar month; April.

Phat Dan Lanterns are hung outside the pagodas and Buddhist homes to commemorate Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and the attainment of Nirvana. Eighth day of the fourth lunar month; May.
Chua Xu Festival The stone statue of Chua Xu at Sam Mountain, Chau Doc, is bathed, and thousands flock to honour her. Twenty-third to twenty-fifth day of fourth lunar month; May.
Tet Doan Ngo The summer solstice (fifth day of the fifth moon) is marked by festivities aimed at warding off epidemics brought on by the summer heat. This is also the time of dragon-boat races; late May to early June.
Trang Nguyen (or Vu Lan) The day of wandering souls is the second most important festival after Tet. Offerings of food and clothes are made to comfort and nourish the unfortunate souls without a home, and all graves are cleaned. This is also time for the forgiveness of faults, when the King of Hell judges everyone’s spirits and metes out reward or punishment as appropriate. Until the fifteenth century prisoners were allowed to go home on this day. Fourteenth or fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month; August.

Do Son Buffalo-fighting Festival Held in Do Son village, near Hai Phong. Ninth and tenth days of the eighth lunar month; August.
Kate Festival The Cham New Year is celebrated in high style at Po Klong Garai and Po Re Me, both near Phan Rang; September–October.
Trung Thu The mid-autumn festival, also known as Children’s Day, is when dragon dances take place and children are given lanterns in the shape of stars, carp or dragons. Special cakes, banh trung thu, are eaten at this time of year. These are sticky rice cakes filled with lotus seeds, nuts and candied fruits and are either square like the earth (banh deo), or round like the moon (banh nuong) and containing the yolk of an egg. Fourteenth or fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month; September–October.
Whale Festival Lang Ca Ong, Vung Tau. Crowds gather to make offerings to the whales. Sixteenth day of the eighth lunar month; September–October.
Oc Bom Boc Festival Boat-racing festival in Soc Trang. Tenth day of tenth lunar month; November–December.
Da Lat Flower Festival An annual extravaganza in which the city shows off the abundance of blooms grown locally; December.
Christmas Midnight services at the cathedrals in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and much revelry in the streets; December 24.