Multicultural Manners : Holidays Open Door to Possible Missteps

Elena, a divorced Latina mother, notices the Truongs, her Vietnamese neighbors, preparing for Tet, the Lunar New Year celebration. Demonstrating her respect and fondness for these neighbors, Elena knocks on their door on New Year’s morning with a bouquet of flowers. However, when the Vietnamese grandmother opens the door, she storms off bitterly proclaiming, “It would have been better to have kept the door closed!”

What went wrong?

Elena didn’t know that for the Vietnamese, the first person who crosses the threshold on New Year’s Day foreshadows what will happen for the year. The Truong family had arranged for a successful businessman with many children to be their first guest in hopes of bringing them good luck in financial and family matters. Unwittingly, Elena got there first. Because she was divorced, she symbolized a broken family and lack of success. The “first-foot” tradition is not limited to Asian cultures. It is an ancient and well-known custom in the British Isles. Here, too, families try to rig the tradition by prearranging for the right person to be the first one to step through the front door, ensuring good luck and prosperity for the new year. Unlucky first-foots are a woman, a flat-footed or cross-eyed person or one whose eyebrows meet across the nose. They usually dislike a red-haired first-foot, especially in Wales.

Rule: Find out the rules before participating in others’ ethnic celebrations.