It is fun to celebrate big holidays in adopted homelands and for many, enjoying Christmas festivities is just that in Vietnam. In a small neighborhood in Saigon, people are stringing up lights to bring some holiday cheer to the outside of their homes. One of the neighborhood men says putting up Christmas decoration is a tradition the neighbors here have been doing every year, for the past several decades.
Although not everyone celebrates Christmas outside of the U.S., in Vietnam, some are catching on and decorate and enjoy the holiday minus the gift giving. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
There is an older woman who owns the big house smack in the middle of the block. She generously supplies the electricity for the lighted decorations during December, the men say. Otherwise, the neighbors would chip in money to pay the electric bill.
During the past few weeks, many people in Việt Nam have been decorating their houses, neighborhoods and wards to celebrate Christmas or Lễ Giáng Sinh. It is indeed a very festive time of the year here!
According to the U.S-based Pew Research Center, in 2010, only 8.2 percent of people in Việt Nam identified as Christians, most of them as Catholics. The majority of the country, 45.3 percent, practice folk religions and almost 30 percent are non-religious. So it is interesting that while Việt Nam is a predominantly non-Christian country, Christmas seems to be celebrated here by almost everyone.
But at least in one aspect, Việt Nam has not yet adopted a familiar Christmas tradition from the West: People here do not exchange gifts during Christmas, though families sometimes do give toys and sweets to young children during the festivities. Nevertheless, the intense commercialization and marketing of the holiday has been a boon to local businesses and street vendors.
For anyone who doesn’t care for a White Christmas and can stand the heat and humidity as well as severe traffic, Christmas in Việt Nam can still be a winter wonderland, just of a different kind.
