New Year

I am taking an interesting class through the linguistics department this term- community activism, which is very much like a senior capstone because of the community service aspect. We are working as volunteers with Atkinson, a local elementary school. My group is helping out with the Asian New year celebration that will be near the end of February.
Doing a little research on the web, I found that certain flowers such as peach tree blossoms, hoa mai (plum tree blossoms), chrysanthemums, camellias, orchids, peonies, dahlias, gladioli, narcissus (water fairy flower) and kumkwats are traditional for the Vietnamese New Year. There is also a New Year tree, which is a stick of bamboo wrapped in red paper.
I found a nice picture of a plum tree blossom:

rbreed101
I don't think this is the same variety- different color, but it is a very nice picture. I was unable to find any pictures googling for hoa mai.
Good colors for the new year ar red- which symbolises vitality, the green of banh chung, the pink of the peach blossom, and the yellow of hoa mai (plum tree blossom)
There are some traditions that go along with the new year, such as cleaning homes, and getting new clothes and shoes, and paying debts and resolving differences. Midnight on New Years Eve firecrackers are set off, the noise blending with gongs and other loud things- to send out the old year and welcome in the new.