Saigon market packed as people buy Tet offerings

The Kitchen Gods are believed to leave earth for heaven on Tuesday.

Vietnamese believe each family has its own Kitchen Gods who act as its guardians, and leave earth a week before the new year, which falls on February 1 this year.

Sellers at around 20 votive paper stalls in the market had people coming in throughout the day to buy.

While handling the customers the sellers also had to prepare to deliver some large orders.

“In the last few months the shops have been deserted, but now they are packed as Tet approaches,” Luong Nu, a 70-year-old stall owner who has been selling votive paper at the market for 45 years, said.

Do Anh Hao, 30, said he bought the offerings because he plans to open a company this year and wants the gods’ blessings.

He has spent around VND500,000 ($22) on offerings.

Luong Thi Chuc, 60, rode her bike nearly 10 kilometers to buy VND148,000 worth of offerings to her Kitchen Gods.

The atmosphere in the market as the holidays approach was what she wanted to feel, she said.

Replicas of clothes, vehicles, computers, and smartphones are available from VND10,000 to VND30,000 each. People usually burn them to “send” to dead people and ancestors.

A votive paper motorbike costs VND100,000.

Hao of Binh Tan District carried several bags of offerings that cost VND1.4 million.

Many delivery workers came to pick up goods.