Saigon Santa

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Tet is the biggest celebration in the Vietnam calendar. This is Christmas, New Year and everything else all rolled into one. Tet is not until February though. More and more western holidays are starting to have their influence as well. It is not surprising with western movies, television and music being so popular, Vietnamese culture has integrated increasing amounts of western customs into their own.

Halloween is becoming almost as big as in the States, but it is Christmas where we really see the impact. From the start of December you see the decorations going up, with shops trying to out do each other with their displays. The lights in the street are much more impressive than in the UK, a lot of effort is made to fill the streets with colour. The people drive around to see the lights and stop to have their photo taken with the countless trees and snowmen. If you thought traffic was bad normally, then do not even try to drive around central District 1 on the weeks leading up to Christmas (the only time it is worse is when the Vietnam football team win a match; that is just chaos though).

As with anywhere else, Christmas is about the children. As you wander around the streets you will see hundreds of children dressed in their Santa outfits or red dresses for the girls. Everybody will stop to pose for photos and there is a general excitement. Christmas in Vietnam though is not about religion, it is about Santa. Although you will see Santa, the reindeer and snowmen on every street; there is not a baby in a manger to be seen anywhere. This is probably an indication of what Christmas has become in the West. Only jolly St Nick has broken through and the religious aspect has been lost.

Just going back to snowmen for a minute, it is quite surreal seeing plastic snowmen and fake snow covered trees in glorious sunshine and high 20’s temperatures. In fact only the very North of Vietnam in the mountain areas would even get snow. To the Saigonese, snow typifies Christmas but they have never seen real snow (I have some Vietnamese coming back to the UK with me in January, they are very excited about the prospect of seeing snow; I suspect though that the novelty will wear off after 10 minutes. I think I will get them to build a snowman though, it could be a once in a lifetime opportunity for them. Not sure about sledging, I don’t want to hospitalise them).

The celebrations run on well into New Year. 31st December sees the usual street parties and most people stay out until well past midnight. I am not sure whether this is also an adopted holiday or whether New Year has always been celebrated this way. Given that historically they would follow the Lunar calendar though, I suspect New Year has also only recently taken hold in Vietnam. Most people took to the streets on foot with the majority of the roads around District 1 being closed to traffic. This allowed for DJ’s and concerts to take place. One of the best was actually one of the smallest. An orchestra was set up on a stage and they performed a concert to rival the Vienna Philharmonic, they even finished with Blue Danube complete with audience participation. The show had some singing and dancing intertwined with the classical pieces, this included can-can dancers and some ballet. Later the Heineken party was one of the busiest, but with only DJ sets for entertainment I soon got bored and moved into the Vinaphone party. The Vinaphone party had a number of top Vietnamese pop acts so it was very popular with the mostly teenage crowd. I stayed there to welcome in the new year and then went home to bed.

Yes, Christmas and New Year are becoming very big. If this is how they celebrate an adopted holiday, I am disappointed I will not be there to experience their one ‘big one’ with Tet this February. Maybe next year.

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