Comming to Vietnam to travel on Tet holiday is many foreign tourists’ choice.Tourists are very curious about Vietnamese customs, entertainment activities or festivals on Tet holiday. Comming to Vietnam to travel on Tet holiday is many foreign tourists’ choice. Accroding to research on hotels located on Hanoi old streets, many receptionists said that the number of tourist booking room for their vacation on Tet holiday is quite big. Tourists are very curious about Vietnamese customs, entertainment activities or festivals on Tet holiday.
Meeting Carolina, a tourist from Australia, while she was having coffee on a street. Coroline said that she was completely impressed because though people was busy and hurry, they were all seemed to be very happy. The 32-year-old tourist said, she had chosen to come to Vietnam on Tet holiday because of her friends’ recommendation. The suggested her to go here to see how the Vietnameses celeberate their Tet holiday. In her friends’ opinion, watching firework performance at Hoan Kiem lake on the New Year’s Eve is a unforgetable memory that she shouldn’t miss. That’s why Carolina is excitedly looking forward to that New Year’s Eve moment.
Her partner on this trip is a guy named Simon. On the first place, Simon was not excited in this trip. He reluctantly came to Vietnam because he wasn’t enable to let his girlfriend go alone. However when they arrived to Hanoi on days near Tet holiday, he was extremely attracted by the uproarious atmostphere and all the unique custom that he had never seen before.
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| Photo by Phương Nhung/Dantri |
Simon was very curious why Hanoi has so many temples and people go there alot on Tet holiday. Walking around on Kitchen guardians, the Australian couple were very surprised when they saw people burning the joss-paper right on the street, they thought that some joss-paper even looked like USA dollar. Simon wanted to try Chung cake since he had seen about it on the internet. He insisted that beside chung cake, he wanted to find out and try Hanoian tranditional foods on Tet holiday.
Chosing Hanoi as a destination for the vacation, Carlos – a tourist from Argentina – shared that he had such interesting days experiencing Vietnamese customs on Tet holiday. Among many costums that he had known, Carlos was specially impressed by the calligraphy art. Because he didn’t know the exactly name of this custom, he described it as something that the elder sat on the road and drew letters, they were very talented, with just one letter they could draw many different drawing.
Though Carlos didn’t understand much, he could tell that the those calligraphies meant alot to the Vietnameses. The spot that calligrapher sat always had many people queueing, waiting to have a calligraphy or they just simply wanted to watch, just like Carlos. Carlos said that, nothing was as fun as Hanoi on Tet holiday, sparkling streets were very crowded and uproarious and there were so many strange customs he hadn’t seen before.
Rachel and Sara came from Lebanon, Israek said “In our coutry, people only celebrate New year holiday with their families. It means that they just stay at home and eat with their families, therefore, streets will be solitary and won’t be decorated. However, Vietnam is way different, streets are decorated with alot of flowers and sparkling lights. People are all around, it’s very crowded but everyone is so happy and friendly”.
They said that there were so many tranditional foods on Tet holiday that they couldn’t even remember their names but they were all very well-made and delicious too. In Rachel’s opinion, though Israel also had peach blossom, they were only in white color. However, peach blossom in Hanoi were in various ranges of colour such as red, baby pink and deep pink. Rachel specially delectable knowing that this peach blossom was Hanoi traditional flower on Tet holiday.
I incidentally met and had a chance to talk with a couple from America – Hay and Eric – together with their Vietnamse adopted child named Trung while they were sitting on a bench near Hoan Kiem lake. The wife Hay said that they came to Vietnam to celebrate the Tet holiday in hope that their son could feel the tranditional Tet atmostphere in his motherland. Hay and Eric decided to choose Hanoi because it was said to be the most crowded and bustled city on Tet holiday.
Not only the son but Hay and Eric were also attracted by the bustle of Hanoi on days near Tet. Different from USA, the weather here was extremely warm. Their family planed to walk around Hanoi streets to visti Tet holiday markets and fairs. On the New Year’s Eve, they would like to come to Hoan Kiem lake to watch firework performance.
