With Tết less than a month away, now is probably the time to ramp up shopping trips, cleaning tasks and home decoration efforts.

It's comforting to know that we can depend on the lunar new year to be a special time to get in touch with our cultural roots for these customs have managed endured decades of change. As shown in this fun-packed collection of old Hanoi photos from 1955 (year of the goat), past generations shared a lot of our favorite things about Tết: going to the market, making bánh chưng, and sweet treats. They're the things that ground us every holiday season.

Hanoi Opera House.

The Thủ Đô Cineplex on phố Lương Văn Can.

A Tết market session at Đồng Xuân Market.

Packets of sweet Tết treats.

An orange vendor.

Carps sold as altar offering.

A blood pudding vendor.

Candied fruits.

Wine and lạp xưởng.

A range of pet fish for sale.

A butcher with some of the day's fresh pork cuts.

Vermicelli.

A range of winterwear.

A man with his trầu cau box display.

More carps for sale.

A poster shop boasting a selection prints of communist leaders.

Stewing pots.

A lady picking bouquets of gladiolus.

Tết paintings in Đông Hồ style.

Sticks of dry prawns.

Picking pots of chrysanthemum.

Ông đồ working on calligraphy.

Oh no, Peppa!

Candied fruits and other sweets.

A calligrapher working on Nôm posters.

An altar offering with prepared dishes and two pots of kumquats.

Another set of altar offerings with live carps in the pot.

Tying up bánh chưng before boiling.

Compressing bánh chưng.

Preparing to boil a batch of bánh chưng.

Now is the time for patience.

A festival at Trung Liệt Pagoda to commemorate the Ngọc Hồi-Đống Đa victory.

Swinging, but make it hardcore. At the Temple of Literature.

Entering the Trung Liệt Pagoda.

A festival procession.

[Photos via Flickr user manhhai]