South East Asian Trips

Festivals have long been considered the traditional cultural activity of the Vietnamese people. They are attractive to all social classes and have become a necessary part of people's lives for many centuries. Festivals are the crystallization of cultural, spiritual, and physical activities that have been chosen, maintained, and improved over many generations. Festivals are the living cultural museums of the way people live.

Festivals are a place to enjoy and learn about the people's crafts. For example, the Master Pagoda Festival (HaTay) has puppet shows and the Hung Temple Festival (Vinh Phu) has the "Xoan" folk songs. The Phu Giay Festival has "Chau Van" folk songs. The Lim Festival has "Quan Ho" folk songs. The drum beats that are mixed with traditional musical songs and dances create an never ending energy during the festivals.

Festivals are also a place to enjoy interesting games. There are many festival contests such as wrestling, rowing, rice cooking, rope pulling, rope climbing, and chess playing. There are also competitions between trained animals such as cock fights, buffalo fights, and pigeon races. Festivals are an occasion to remember national heroes, the manifestation of religious freedom, and religious ceremonies.

Festivals are also a place where different people can show their own customs and habits. Festival days are usually days where one can find social encounters, relationships, and love. Many loving relationships have originated from tournaments, competitions, or during a few lines of singing.

Traditional festivals in Vietnam

Most Vietnamese festivals are fixed by the lunar calendar: the majority take place in spring, and the days of the full moon (day one) and the new moon (day fourteen or fifteen) are particularly auspicious. All Vietnamese calendars show both the lunar and solar (Gregorian) months and dates (Please check with our staffs for the exact date. Visitors may experience difficulties during this period as shops, restaurants and public services close and prices tend to go up in the few shops that remain open.)

Tet Nguyen Dan , or simply Tet (Festival), is Vietnam's most important annual event; it lasts for seven days and falls sometime between the last week of January and the third week of February, on the night of the new moon. This is a time when families get together to celebrate renewal and hope for the new year, when ancestral spirits are welcomed back to the household, and when everyone in Vietnam becomes a year older.

Festivals of interest to tourists include the Water Puppet Festival held at Thay Pagoda, west of Hanoi; Buddhist festival at the Perfume Pagoda , west of Hanoi and Trung Thu Festival, also known as Children's Day, when dragon dances take place and children are given lanterns in the shape of stars, carp or dragons,

Public Holidays in Vietnam

Public holiday in Vietnam January 1: New Year's Day (one-day holiday) Public holiday in Vietnam April (on the 10 of 3rd Lunar month): Ancestor Worshipping Anniversary (one-day holiday) Public holiday in Vietnam April 30: Saigon Liberation Day (one-day holiday) Public holiday in Vietnam May 1: International Labor Day (one-day holiday) Public holiday in Vietnam September 2: National Day of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (one-day holiday) Public holiday in Vietnam Vietnam Traditional Lunar New Year Festival - Tet Nguyen Dan (four-day holiday). The holiday begins on the last day of the last lunar month and lasts through the first three days of the first lunar month.