Process of holding a celebrate/festival in my hometown.

Every region has special traditions, holidays and customs of its own. In my hometown, the most interesting holiday for everyone is Tet. Tet or Tet Nguyen Dan means the first morning of the first day of the new period. Tet marks the beginning of a new year on the lunar calendar, and the beginning of spring. Tet is a huge celebration and usually lasts the three day. People enjoy themselves to holiday after a whole year’s hard work. And at the same time they wish for good luck in the coming year. There are three main parts in Tet holiday that are the preparation before New Year’s Eve, the New Year’s Eve and the New Year.

Several days before the New Year, people begin to prepare for its celebration. Families save money, pay off all debts and make amends to rid themselves of all bad feelings. The marketplace, stores and shops are very crowded with people before Tet because people buy food, drink, new clothes, flowers, and other necessary items of the holiday. Some families kill pigs, sheep, cocks and hens to take meal and make earth cake, a square cake with beans and pork instead of buying them. At about 5pm o'clock in the final day of old year, all the markets close down so the people can go home and prepare for midnight when Tet begins. And all houses are often cleaned and decorated before New Year’s Eve with couplets on doors, flowers, and photographs of deceased relatives. It is believed that cleaning the house will get rid of the bad fortunes associated with the old year. Families choose a citrus tree, or tac, which is a cone shaped fruit tree with miniature oranges just ripening. The more fruit on the tree, the luckier the family. Greeting cards and good luck symbols are hung from the Tet trees. Each family also has a branch of the Mai tree in their homes, a symbol of spring, which bear lucky little yellow flowers. In addition, people believe that their deceased ancestors will visit the family for the holiday. Therefore, alters are decorated in the homes with a tray full of fruit, coins, and a tall vase of blossoms, incense. The atmosphere preparing for the Tet is usually bustling and interesting.

“Giao" means crossing, meeting. "Thừa" means successor. New Years’ Eve (Giao Thừa) simply mean the time between old and new year. After 12:00 of 30th Dec, it's the first moment of the new year. One member of the family will leave house to perform the Departure of the New Year. New Year’s Eve is the most sacred time of the year. Therefore, the first houseguest to a home is very important. If the first visitor has a good aura (rich, prestigious, happy, well respected, well educated, successful, famous, etc.), then the family believes that they will have good fortune that year. Usually this visitor is a relative, but sometimes the family will invite a special guest that they feel will bring them good luck. Besides, on the New Year’s Eve, family members gather together for a family reunion dinner. After the meal, they watch TV which was so exciting that Kitchen God Contest won warm applause from the audience. Until the clock strikes twelve, everyone continue sit in front of the TV to hear wishes Tet from President and watch fireworks on the TV. In addition, in my hometown, dragon dances and lion dances at night that is a typical tradition. It is also fun to take a walk in the streets, which look gay with bright flags and colored lights.

The New Year is a time for visits from family and friends. During the New Year days, people wear new clothes, have big meals, and go to varieties of entertainment. When you take a walk in the street, you will be much struck at sight of rich and beautiful decorations. For example, the color Red, symbolizing good luck and happiness is seen everywhere. The New Year includes three main days. The first day of Tet is reserved for visiting family and relatives. People are busy coming on a New Year’s visit to their relatives. Children often enjoy getting some luck money. “Happy New Year” is the usual greeting you would hear them say to each other. The second day is set aside for special guests and close friends to visit. They visit friends, coworkers, relatives and greet each other with the best wishes. When people meet each other, they exchange New Year’s greetings. Friends and relative pay New Year calls and give presents to each other. And the third day is for teachers and business associates to make a visit. Visitors end their visit with a farewell wish for the family such as, "I wish that money will flow into your house like water, and out like a turtle". The third day is also a day to visit the graves of deceased relatives. The graves are decorated with incense, flowers, and candles by their relative.

The old has ended and the new is coming. People in my hometown take extreme care to start the New Year out right. It is a time for rest and refreshment. There are also some parades in streets or at some big open space. Everywhere people are enjoying themselves to the full. I hope that any new year comes the atmosphere is also festive like that.

Global citizen

“Global citizen” is a phase which is not strange with almost persons. When a person who is called a global citizen, we think immediately that he or she has a large number of relationships and communications with other countries. Besides, they are awareness that the world is a global community; they can bring world peace, concern for fellow human beings, human rights and human dignity. So, are you a global citizen? What measurements are needed? A global citizen must possess plenty of characteristics; but, three main important qualities of characteristics to become a global citizen are bravery, knowledge of one or more language, and responsibilities.

Bravery doesn’t require a global citizen to hurt and kill. However, if it’s necessary bravery person can hurt and kill terrible things. Have you ever asked yourself that you can brave to try to save life? Global citizens are risking their lives every day to help other citizens and to save them all from harm. They’re sense of protecting people from the risks even that actions can bring nothing for them. Specially, global citizen are always look for the benefit for everyone. For example, global citizens go where deadly disease is and are not afraid to help save the sick. Global citizens are trying perilous experiments so as to find out better knowledge for human race. Others on thousands of locomotives are not afraid of sudden death if they can save their passengers from harmful accidents. Global citizens are ready to face the strong floods and the storm to help flood victims. Global citizens stand ready to die for bringing little children safely out of burning buildings. Brave women risk their own lives daily for sake of others. Indeed, all these are brave actions and it is brave to try to save life. If you only speak theory you don’t brave to make it happen, you can’t do anything which is really useful for human race. Therefore, bravery is one of the important qualities to be a global citizen.

Next, foreign language plays important roles in becoming a global citizen. There are many practical reasons that a global citizen should learn foreign languages. Every country has different customs and cultures. Learning another language help a global citizen gains knowledge about another culture and easy to associate with all people in the world. When a global citizen learns a second language, he or she sees that there are other ways to see how issues to affect the environment such as population explosion, polluted level to every country, epidemiological and so on then they have foreign language to research lots of variety documents, directly discuss and unite with another in the world to find out proper solution for these problems. Perhaps the most powerful effect of learning another language is communication. With a second, or third, or fourth language, one can make contact with any fellow human being. Through communication, one sees that the human mind, keep in contact with other people, greater understanding of other cultures, better communication with other peoples that can help promote world peace. It is necessary for global citizen to learn the language in order to communicate with people who come from different countries and to learn from them.

Finally, global citizen must fulfill responsibilities to their life, their families, their country and the world. Global citizen’s responsibilities to their country are to be good citizens and to be patriotic. As good citizens, they should obey the laws of their country and respect its leaders. As patriots, they should be proud of our nation and loyal to its heritage. Good citizenship and patriotism require that global citizen put the interests of their country before their own individual desires. Global citizen’s responsibilities to the world are the most important of all. It is brotherhood, peace, and good will toward all men everywhere. Finally, it is need to remember that global citizen have to have a responsibility to the world they live in. It is important that global citizen learn foreign language to help people live peaceful with the other nations of the world, and to protect our environment. If they carry out these responsibilities, they will be respected citizens of their country. Therefore, responsibilities are necessary for global citizen.

Some people believe the world would be a far better place if we all believed we were citizens of the world. Being a global citizen involves brave actions, have knowledge about the many fields in the life and have responsibilities not just to each other but to the earth itself. I think everyone want to live a happy life in the future, so we start acting to become a global citizen who always bring good things for the life.