In the royal life of Hue, the days leading up to Tet often involve the ritual of "Thướng tiêu" - erecting a tall bamboo pole to signal the arrival of Tet. The word "Tiêu" (標) in Thướng tiêu (上標) means "pole" or "flagpole," the highest point easily visible.

Under the Nguyen dynasty: during the reigns of Kings Gia Long, Minh Mang, and Thieu Tri, the Neu pole erecting ceremony took place on the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month each year. Under subsequent kings, starting from King Tu Duc's reign, the ceremony was moved to the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month.

Originally, the purpose of erecting the Neu pole, according to folklore, was to prevent demons from the East Sea from entering the land and harming the inhabitants. However, over time and across different regions, ethnic groups, and community customs, the significance of erecting the Nêu pole on Tet has expanded, with variations in different places. In Hue's royal court, the pole was raised to pray for favorable weather, national prosperity, and the peace of the people. It also symbolized the Nguyen dynasty's sovereignty and marked the time for rest and celebration as Tet approached. One could often see ritual items such as seals and peach branches (symbolizing the gods and Tet couplets) and baskets containing gold and silver money hanging from the top of the Neu pole.

According to tradition, when the Nêu pole appeared on the walls of the ancient royal court, temples, pagodas, and people's homes, it was time to erect poles, offer sacrifices to the gods and ancestors, and drive away evil spirits. The poet Tu Xuong captured this tradition in his verse: "Spring emerges from within, spreading to all households." Nguyen Khuyen, in his old age, stumbled upon the pole erected on the 30th day of the lunar month, saying: "On the thirtieth night, I hear the New Year's gongs, on the first morning, I stumble upon the Tet pole."

The Tet Pole erecting in the ancient folk

As legend goes, the Tet pole erecting belongs to Buddhism. In the old times, the devil often occupied the land of humans, and the Buddha helped the people against that. With the abundant mysteries, the Buddha drove away the devils, but at the same time took off their capacity of finding food. Hence, they entreated the Buddha to let them know where would be his land so that they were able to ignore it. The Buddha, hence, told them that wherever there were the chime or gong sounds and flag, there would be his land. 1. For that reason, the Buddha taught that in front of each house, it was needed to erect the high bamboo pole above which the flag and chime were hung.

Besides, on the ground, people must create a circle of lime and the arch together with the arrow around the pole as the limitation. The higher the bamboo tree might be, the further the devils would be from that. The hanging of chime or gong was to create sounds to threaten the devils. In the folk, people also prepared the altar to welcome the genie with the bamboo basket keeping the areca-nut and betel, gold and silver, red vertical flag, chime, the pandanus amaryllifolius or the banyan leaves. Next, people created the lime circle as the territory that was several ten meters from the Tet Pole, the arch, and arrows focusing on the direction where the devil stayed. Some families also hung the amulet or the caryota mitis to prevent the devils.

The Northern people of Vietnam erected the pole in Lunar December 23rd since in the early morning of this day, the Kitchen Genie were left for the meeting in the heaven. Without these genie, the devils may devastate the folk. Thus, the Tet pole was erected until Lunar January 7th for driving the devils.

The Tet pole erecting in the ancient imperial city In the life of Hue former imperial family, before Tet the Tet pole erecting ceremony was taken place to inform the coming of the new year. The word Tiêu (標) (Tet pole) in the Tet pole erecting (上標) means the “top of the tree” at the highest point for the convenience of observation. Before Tet, the Tet pole erecting was held to mark the coming of the new year. Its original purpose was to welcome the Tet, then to worship the genie and ancestors for the goodness of their family. The dynasty also wished for the great peace and the natural harmony and public prosperity. In the royal poem of Minh Mạng emperor, there mentioned the verse with the image of the Tet pole as follows: I wonder why the spring time has yet to be warm/It’s cold as the days have gone/The winter turns colder with rain squalls/The Tet pole is wrapped with the chilly wind. In this poem, the emperor explained in details the Tet pole erecting ceremony. As regulated, as soon as the Lunar December 25th, no document would be received. This day was for the ceremonies of closing the seal and Tet pole erecting. As for the second ceremony, people used a bamboo tree on which there hung a bamboo chime, a bamboo basket containing the paper currency, areca and betel nut, the amulet (on which they wrote the genie’s names) to worship the genie. Apart from keeping the genie’s name, on the amulet, the spring couplets were written like what had been done under the Song dynasty of China. Besides, the Minh Mạng emperor thought that the emperor must not be restful. Moreover, if the seal was closed or hidden, how could the urgent political affairs be solved? According to the order of the Minh Mạng emperor, in each of the Tet pole erecting, the dynasty only chose some seals of minor importance to be symbolically hung on the bamboo basket. Until Lunar January 7

Reenacted for the first time in 2013 by the Hue Imperial Citadel Conservation Center, the Thượng tiêu ceremony has become a meaningful tradition in Hue's Imperial Citadel as part of the preparations for celebrating the traditional Tet festival.