Christmas is gaining popularity in communist Vietnam as a ‘fun festival from the west’. There are more places popping up enabling you to get into the Christmas spirit with Tuoitre News highlighting 5 places to get a Christmas picture in Ho Chi Minh, including this picture from Christian Town in Tan Phu, Saigon.
However, travellers on our Indochina tours often comment that Vietnam feels like the least spiritual one of the Indochina countries.
Though you won’t come across any alms processions, pagoda dotted hills or tuktuks packed with monks, symbols and expressions of religion and spirituality are plentiful throughout Vietnam…
You will find it…
In Vietnamese festivals and Childrens’ Festival…
*In olden times, the Vietnamese believed that children, being innocent and pure, had the closest connection to the sacred and natural world. Being close to children was seen as a way to connect with animist spirits and deities.
In Vietnamese homes and gardens…
In small offerings..
When you feel small…
In stunning sunsets…
In trees and pagodas pointing to the skies…
In reviving the ancient art of paper flower making...
In living the life one has always known…
In colours and light…
In details that fall into place…
In reflections…
In temple guards, as old as the woodwork...
In solitude…
In nature…
In the shadows of incense…
In staircases leading up to Royal tombs…
In broken pieces creating art…
In new generations…
In the mountains…
In new religions that combine buddhism, confucianism, islam and christianity…
In looking up…
It’s there, you just have to notice.
Merry Christmas.
