A moment to welcome Lunar New Year

Flower Markets

Three Tet flower markets are taking over the city’s three major parks: September 23 Park, Gia Dinh Park and Le Van Tam Park. The September 23 Park, across the roundabout from Ben Thanh Market, will be the city’s main flower market from Jan. 26 to Feb. 2.

Other flower markets in the city are in Dist. 5 (two spots), Dist. 6 (two spots), Dist. 7 (three spots; specially in Dist. 7’s Phu My Hung area, flower market & festival is at Crescent Lake), in District 8 (10 spots), Dist. 10 (two spots), Dist. 11 (three spots), Go Vap Dist. (two spots), Tan Phu Dist. (one spot), Thu Duc Dist. (five spots), Binh Tan Dist. (three spots), Cu Chi Dist. (four spots).

Fairs for Tet Holidays

- From Jan. 21-26 at Phu Tho Indoor Stadium, 1 Lu Gia St., Tan Binh Dist., HCM City.

- From Jan. 25-30 at Van Ho Exhibition Centre, 2 Hoa Lu St., Hanoi.

- From Jan. 26-31 at My Dinh National Exhibtion Palace, Pham Hung St., Hanoi.

Firework Shows

Firework shows will take place at five of high range and two other of lower range during the 15 first minutes of the Lunar New Year’s Eve on Feb. 3 at 0-0:15 a.m.

Caric Shipyard in Thu Thiem Ward, District 2, Administrative Centre project in District 7, Go Vap Cultural Park project in Go Vap District, Nga Ba Giong Memorial area of Heroic Martyrs in Hoc Mon District, Ben Duoc Temple of Heroic Martyrs in Cu Chi District, Ethnic Culture historical park in District 9 and Dam Sen Cultural Park in District 11. 

Ong Do Street

Annually, on Pham Ngoc Thach (in front of the Youth Cultural House) and Nguyen Thi Minh Khai streets (in front of the Labour Cultural House), dozens of young and old calligraphers (ong do) in traditional Vietnamese dress are displaying their calligraphy skills and selling Vietnamese or Chinese calligraphy written in black and yellow ink on red paper. They are New Year greetings wishing people happiness, wealth or longevity.

A calligraphy market will open on Pham Ngoc Thach Street from Jan. 21 to Feb. 2. Artists from the cultural house’s calligraphy club and neighbouring provinces will show off skills at the market.

Another calligraphy market on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai from Jan. 23 to Feb. 1 features artists including members of the Workers Cultural House’s Vietnamese Calligraphy Club and students from city universities.

Nguyen Hue Flower Street

Nguyen Hue Street will be decorated with flowers and ornamental trees, with this year’s theme being New Heights.

The core activity of the festival is the Nguyen Hue Flower Street on Nguyen Hue Boulevard, which will open for seven days from Jan. 31 (7 p.m.) to Feb. 6 (10 p.m.).

Lightings & Door-shows

Lighting up two main streets of Dong Khoi, Le Loi and Chi Lang Park from Jan. 26 to Feb. 14 to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

Families living in these streets will be encouraged to decorate the front of their houses and participate in the Door-shows program from Jan. 31 to Feb 6.

Banh Tet Festival

The city’s 24 districts will organize the banh tet (cylindric glutinous rice cake) making contest to select the best cakes as token offerings to the Hung Kings and to produce 10,000 banh tet cakes for poor people to enjoy Tet on Jan. 28-Jan. 31.

Banh tet offerings will be made at the Temple for Hung Kings, the Ho Chi Minh Museum and the Ton Duc Thang Museum.

Tet Flowers Festival

Exhibitors and artisans will arrange and showcase flowers, decorative fish and birds, besides miniature models of well-known architecture works including Nha Rong Wharf made from flowers and foliages created by Japanese artists. Taiwanese exhibitors will also join the festival on Jan. 28 at 5 p.m.-Feb. 8 at 6 p.m.

The event will kick off in Tao Dan Park (55C Nguyen Thi Minh Khai St., Dist.t 1, HCM City) on Jan. 28, or five days ahead of the Lunar New Year. Apart from Tao Dan Park as the main venue, the organizer will also launch a minor flowers festival at Quoc Te Square, or Ho Con Rua as it is commonly referred to.

Homeland Spring

A special program with the performance of Vietnamese artists at home and abroad will take place at the southern gate of Doan Mon of the Thang Long Royal Citadel in Hanoi on Jan. 28 to welcome Vietnamese expatriates who return home for 2011 Lunar New Year festival.

This year’s program is to celebrate the successful hosting of the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi and the 11th National Party Congress. It is also to mark 100 years since Ho Chi Minh left Nha Rong Wharf on board a French ship to seek ways to liberate the country and 60 years since he returned homeland.

The program, jointly held by SCOV under the Foreign Ministry and other related agencies, will start with a incense burning ceremony at the Kinh Thien palace in the royal citadel.

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Eat and make merit

Filial piety, strongly advocated in both Confucian and Buddhist traditions that have strong roots in Vietnam, extends beyond the grave.

Among numerous rituals and events that mark the performance of filial duties in the country, including daily prayers at the family altar, the month-long Vu Lan-Bao Hieu festival is perhaps the most prominent.

The festival peaks on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, which falls this year on August 24. A feature of this month is that a large number of people shift to vegetarian food, and what better place to get a good meal than at the pagodas themselves!

For some time now, on the fifteenth day of the first, fourth and tenth lunar months, most pagodas have been treating all visitors to a free vegetarian meal.

Monk Thich Tri Thong of the Vien Giac Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Binh District said the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month provides the opportunity for society as a whole, not just Buddhists, to visit pagodas and pray for their parents, and enjoy vegetarian food.

The pagodas are very crowded on this day, he noted.

Thong stressed that the meals at pagodas are very popular not because people are poor or hungry, but because they believe eating the food on offer brings them good luck and good health.

The festival and attendant ceremonies are rooted in the Ullambana Sutra, which tells the story of how Maudgalyayana (Muc Kien Lien in Vietnam) saved the soul of his departed mother.

Maudgalyayana, one of Buddha’s 10 disciples, saw with his divine eye that his mother had been reborn as a hungry spirit due to karmic effect of actions in her previous life.

The Buddha told him that only the combined effort of all Buddhist monks could release his mother’s spirit from suffering. He directed Maudgalyayana to organize an assembly of monks to make offerings and pray for his dead mother on the full moon day of the seventh month – three months after they usually gather to focus on self-improvement.

During the festival, monks read from the Ullambana Sutra and the Bao hieu phu mau an (Fulfilling filial duty for parents) Sutra every evening.

The Bao hieu phu mau an Sutra, contains the Buddha’s thoughts on a child’s obligations to his parents and the fate suffered in the afterlife by those who treat their parents badly.

The prayer for Maudgalyayana’s mother’s soul and the food offered to appease her hunger has become a tradition followed to this day by Buddhist pagodas in Vietnam and other countries.

While the Vien Giac Pagoda will offer food for visitors from 9.a.m. to 4.p.m., others offer meals depending on their financial capacity and other considerations like space to serve the food, Thong said.

The meal’s menu and arrangements also differ from pagoda to pagoda depending on the number of visitors expected and logistical arrangements possible, with some serving it as a buffet, and others serve it a la carte to tables.

At the Phung Son Pagoda in District 11, the devotees are seated 10 to a table and served by volunteers, fostering friendship and goodwill between friends, relatives and strangers. The pagoda, built in 1802 and recognized as a national architectural heritage, has a large area with many trees that make the diners more comfortable and relaxed.

Pagodas in the countryside offer a fresher, friendlier atmosphere and larger spaces, and the locals invariably impress visitors with their friendly, hospitable nature.

With the growing popularity of vegetarian food, it is not surprising that some pagodas have actually earned some fame for their culinary expertise.

The Phat Nhut Pagoda, located near the Tien Thuy Market in Chau Thanh District in the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre, restored and rebuilt in 2009, is famous for serving very delicious vegetarian food.

Dieu Bao, a frequent volunteer chef, said this year the pagoda plans to serve more than 300 people on the auspicious day.

The two dishes people like the most are sour soup (cooked with mint, tomato, tofu and other vegetables) and kiểm soup (made with sweet potato, peanut, breadfruit, coconut milk and other ingredients), Bao said.

After enjoying food at the Phat Nhut Pagoda, a visit to fruit gardens in neighboring communes can cap off a delightful day, he said.

Roses are red... or white

A woman is pinned with a white rose at the rose-pinning ceremony at Giac Uyen Pagoda in HCMC’s Phu Nhuan District

In addition to the free meal, pagodas also organize a rose-pinning ceremony initiated by world renowned Vietnamese Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh in the 1960s.

Usually held on the evening of the 14th day of the seventh month, devotees whose parents are alive will have red roses pinned on their dresses, while those whose parents have passed away get white roses.

Monk Thich Le Duc, head of the Phat Nhut Pagoda, said they plan to prepare 700 red and white roses for the ceremony that will be held on evening of the fourteenth day (August 23) and the morning of the following day.

He said the ceremony encourages children to remember with gratitude the sacrifices made by parents in bringing them up, be happy if they are alive, and pray for the departed souls if they have passed away.

Some pagodas to visit in Ho Chi Minh City Vinh Nghiem, 339 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia St., Ward 7, Dist. 3 Lam Te, 212A Nguyen Trai St, , Nguyen Cu Trinh Ward, Dist. 1 Phung Son, 1408 Ba Thang Hai St., Ward 2, Dist. 11 Viet Nam Quoc Tu, 244 Ba Thang Hai St., Ward 12, Dist. 10 Vien Giac, 193 Bui Thi Xuan St., Ward 1, Tan Binh Dist. Giac Uyen, 525/37 Huynh Van Banh St., Phu Nhuan Dist. Thien Ton, 117/3/2 An Binh St., Ward 6, Dist. 5 Hue Nghiem 2, 299B Luong Dinh Cua St., Binh Khanh Ward, Dist. 2 Hoang Phap, Tan Hiep Commune, Hoc Mon Dist. Gia Lam, 496/11 Le Quang Dinh St., Binh Thanh Dist.

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