Christmas in Vietnam

Vietnam is about 90% Buddhist, but you wouldn't know it judging from the omnipresence of all things Christmas. A walk through the main streets of Saigon will leave you drenched in a sea (the metaphor seemed okay when I thought of it) of red, green and white tinsel, and your ears polluted by the sounds of tacky Christmas carols being blared out of shop fronts. According to some who had been here a while, major public Christmas celebrations have only started in Vietnam in the past couple of years. Based on that, I'd suggest that Vietnam is like the little boy who has just discovered his genitals, and now can't stop playing with them. The Christmas paraphenalia is so much more in-your-face then anything experienced back home.

Given that Catholics are only a small part of the population, it seems clear that any notion of the spiritual side of Christmas is minimal. Instead, this is naked commercial opportunism, and the Vietnamese have taken to it with gusto. The spread of Christmas as a mainstrem public celebration can be tracked alongside the growth of major chain stores and internationally owned shopping centres, all of which have much to gain through the promotion of Christmas as a big public occassion. All we need now is the Boxing Day test in downtown Saigon, and December in Vietnam would be complete. I might be waiting a while.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi Ari,

This is my first visit to your site and I've enjoyed reading what you've got here.

I am currently living in China but I'll be taking a 2-week swing through Vietnam on the way home to the US for winter vacation. I was wondering if you could tell me about the internet facilities in most cafes in Vietnam. I have a blog of my own and I'm hoping to keep it current through my trip posting observations like you have done. Specifically, I'm wondering whether its possible to upload photos from a digital camera in most internet cafes. Basically, do the computers have USB ports that you can use to transfer your photos? You can email me at mewaters[at]metanoiac[dot]com if you don't want to respond in the comments. It's actually a bit difficult for me to access your blog in China because blogspot.com is blocked and the proxy server I use is down for the moment.

Cheers and keep up the good work,

Matt Waters
from METANOIAC!
29 December 2004 at 14:17
Anonymous said…
Very little sign of Xmas in Bangkok and it is totally absent here in the Holy Land. Very little evidence of the approaching new year although we have overheard a few shana tovahs which comfused us a little - is it grand final time so soon. C
29 December 2004 at 18:20
Anonymous said…
Hey Ari,

What happens when said boy discovers that having only one ball is not the norm?

Need I even attach my name? Only one person could write this!

Jacks xox
29 December 2004 at 19:02
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thanks for all the fish

After 13 years with Blogspot, I've shifted blogging platform. So (drumroll, please), you can find my new blog here . Ari on the Web will stay online, so you can scroll through the archives for all sorts of embarrassing tidbits. To make it easier to find some of my writing on particular themes, I've grouped some pieces together under a few labels: Cancer Fatherhood Indonesia travels North Korea travels United States travels Undergraduate days   So as they say here in my new home of Japan, so long, and thanks for the all the fish.
Read more

Welcome to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

North Korea is a place that is shrouded in mystery and conjecture, much of it of its own creation. For so long it has chosen to close itself off from the rest of the world that little information flows in or out of the place. In the absense of hard facts, rumour and speculation run rife. I plead guilty as one who has engaged in plenty of rumour-mongering in the past (and, let's be honest, will probably try my hand at it in the future), but to really come to grips with the place it is necessary to see it first hand. Much of the speculation is not meant in a harsh, negative way - although there are elements of that - but is instead meant in the same way that people watch the bearded lady at the circus. Curious, but not necessarily critical. Perhaps they could but those on the number plates - DPRK: The Bearded Lady of Asia. Since there are so few who have seen the place but so many who speculate, I think it is worth publishing a few thoughts after my trip. It's important
Read more

Can conspicuous consumption save the news business?

Image
It’s a dire time for the news industry. Readers are flooding to social media for content, advertisers are moving with them and costs are being cut at a brutal rate in a desperate bid to meet falling revenue. It is increasingly clear that business models that depend on amassing large audiences in order to provide a forum for advertising will always struggle against the “niche of one” audience that social media platforms can provide for advertisers. There’s been lots of talk lately about ways to fund public interest journalism. One idea is to tax the online aggregators – Facebook and Google, primarily – that sell advertising against the news content of others to support news organisations. Another is to make news subscriptions or donations to its producers tax deductible.  Both ideas are worth considering, but they do not abrogate the need for news organisations to seek better ways to draw revenue from consumers.  (It is alarming that discussion of efforts to build a
Read more