When talking about pigs, Vietnamese often think of such bad habits as laziness and wanting only food and sleep. They also use reprimands like “as stupid as a pig” and “the pig!” But the pig is also one of humans’ six best domesticated animals, along with the dog, chicken, buffalo, horse and goat.

In Chinese, the right part of the word happiness phuc is a combination of three words, from top: Nhat (one), khau (mouth) and dien (field), which symbolize a pig with its head, mouth and body. Phuc expresses the prosperity of those who have far-sighted visions.

Phuc means more than just prosperity when it is combined with hong (red – the color of luck for Chinese). This is why roasted pigs with red skins are served at the weddings of Chinese and Vietnamese couples to represent luck and happiness. But roasted pigs are not enough for a wedding, so the best wishes for newly-weds are Thuy chung (Beginning and end, that is, faithfulness). Therefore, when the groom’s family presents a roasted pig as an offering to the bride’s family, the latter will return the pig’s head and tail to the former as a promise of loyalty of the bride to the groom.

In daily life

It is probably because of the close relationship between humans and pigs that the image of the pig is present in daily life in many forms. The first is heo dat, a small baked clay container in the shape of a pig (heo) for people to store coins and notes as savings. Vietnamese people call this money-keeping container heo dat (earth pig) even though it might be made of plastic, ceramics or iron.

This kind of container originates from rural residents’ habit of rearing pigs. With spare food from three meals a day, they could raise pigs to sell for meat and earn some extra money for their families. Urban residents could not raise pigs that way, so they saved their money with heo dat. A heo dat is thus often made with two big coins as earrings.

On the occasion of Mid-Autumn Festival, pigs appear in the form of cakes: A mother pig nursing its piglets. Vietnam’s traditional Dong Ho paintings also depict a mother pig nursing its piglets to express prosperity and happiness.

In many ethnic minorities’ villages, pigs are allowed to roam freely and they live in peace with people. Houses on stilts are built near fields and a river or spring. People live in these houses while pigs live underneath. It is a beautiful picture of harmony between people, animals and nature.

The Year of the Pig comes when Vietnam has just become the 150th member of the World Trade Organization. It is to be hoped that the Year of the Pig will witness Vietnam’s growth in prosperity and happiness.