NEWS AND MORE's video: Vietnamese release carp to kick off Lunar New Year celebrations

Vietnamese release carp to kick off Lunar New Year celebrations Vietnamese kicked off preparations for the Lunar New Year festival on Thursday (February 4) by releasing ornamental carp into rivers and lakes - an age-old ceremony held one week before the "Tet" holiday officially begins. The tradition stems from the fable of three "Kitchen Gods" who ride on the back of a carp before noon to meet a Jade Emperor, to whom they report the affairs of each household. "Releasing the fish makes me feel better about myself," said Nguyen Hong Nhung, a resident of Hanoi. "It's like I've done a good deed, so I'll be luckier in the new year." Thursday's event, which takes place across Vietnam, was slightly more muted than previous years, following the detection of a new cluster of COVID-19 cases across several northern provinces. Thanks to aggressive contact tracing and targeted mass testing, Vietnam has kept its tally to a low 1,948 cases, and 35 deaths. Despite that, the recent confirmation that Vietnam's latest outbreak was of the more contagious variant of the disease first detected in Britain led some to take extra precautions. (Production: Minh Nguyen, Thinh Nguyen)