Saigon is not a hometown. It is just a place to earn money, or to find an opportunity. It is strange and far away in mind of most people here. Have you ever wondered how immigrants celebrate their festival seasons in the unfamiliar place like this?
Saturday, December 10. 2011
Rites & Rituals: Big festival - lonely city
by Lan Phuong
Saigon is not a hometown. It is just a place to earn money, or to find an opportunity. It is strange and far away in mind of most people here. Have you ever wondered how immigrants celebrate their festival seasons in the unfamiliar place like this?
Saigon is not a hometown. It is just a place to earn money, or to find an opportunity. It is strange and far away in mind of most people here. Have you ever wondered how immigrants celebrate their festival seasons in the unfamiliar place like this?
A sign to celebrate Tet Holiday in a restaurant
At the beginning of December (1 or 2 months before Lunar New Year), all train stations and flight ticket offices are crowded. People concentrate inside stations; stand on long lines all day. They are so patient to buy a ticket to return Ha Noi (the North) or some other provinces in the middle of Vietnam. The smell of Tet (Lunar New Year) is somewhere in food stands, souvenir shops. That atmosphere makes immigrants homesick. They are in a rush to be home.
In Vietnamese traditional rite, Tet Holiday is a very important occasion to return home for a family reunion. That appears in every child’s mind, especially if they grow up in the countryside – where family is the closest relationship. That big rush can be drawn as a South – North Migration, like the imagination of the birds flying to the south to escape from the coldness of winter. Vietnamese in Saigon move to the North to return their warm nests.
Nguyen Hue - a big street - has become the flower street in Tet Holiday. Before the New Year Eve, people from rural areas concentrate to Saigon to see flowers. After the New Year Eve, only some local Saigon people walk around and enjoy some quiet days.
The closer Tet is coming, the bigger the flow of people to the North becomes. In High Way No.1, there are huge crowded of people standing on the pavement, trying to stop ANY available car passing by to have a seat back home. The craziness of moving makes Saigon shakes greatly. Markets welcome a huge number of consumers. They come to grab any “city gifts” by the year awarded money to take home. The city is sparkling in lights of goods and beautiful things. Meanwhile, the countryside is in simple colors and poverty. All Tet gifts are welcomed. People spend their last penny to buy anything that they can bring home to offer poor relatives and families.
Some years ago, I returned home late in the New Year Eve. I saw so many people still crowded on the high way, waving hopelessly any transportation to be home on time for the New Year Celebration. Some faces were so tired. Some people slept on their luggage. Some were so sad to be alone in the middle of far South Region of the country. Their hometowns were so far away in the atmosphere of Tet. That was not fair. There was a yearlong far away from home. I was some of the last one still driving on the street back home. Saigon was closing her eyes, for a night good sleep.
In Vietnamese tradition, people decorate their houses with beautiful flowers bought from flower markets (organized before the New Year Eve). You can enjoy so beautiful kinds of flower in these markets.
In the 1st day of New Year, Saigon is just like a quiet garden. All buildings close. All services stop working. No one stands on street. Huge traffic jams disappear as if they had never been here before. No motorcycle wanders around. No car moves in a rush. That is always a sleepy sunny 1st New Year Day. No one actually care about how Saigon is feeling. Is she lonely?
No garbage. No smoke from motorcycles. No noise. There is only the whistle of winds in middles of bushy tree branches. There is only some giggling sound of Saigon girls walking or riding bicycle around. Saigon is never as quiet as 1st day of New Year is.
I still remember a literature writer wrote in his Notes in Facebook: “Saigon is always an unfamiliar place. It is the hometown of no one. People forget it immediately when they have a chance to get away. No one actually love to be here. Poor my Saigon!”
I feel some sadness passing my heart. Actually, with no one, Saigon is beautiful, in its original appearance, not in a big crowd!
And immigrants are so happy to return home, to be in hugs of mothers, to be in smiles of children. If there were no hard pressure to earn a living, this city would be quiet, and people would be happy in their calm life somewhere in the countryside.
At the beginning of December (1 or 2 months before Lunar New Year), all train stations and flight ticket offices are crowded. People concentrate inside stations; stand on long lines all day. They are so patient to buy a ticket to return Ha Noi (the North) or some other provinces in the middle of Vietnam. The smell of Tet (Lunar New Year) is somewhere in food stands, souvenir shops. That atmosphere makes immigrants homesick. They are in a rush to be home.
In Vietnamese traditional rite, Tet Holiday is a very important occasion to return home for a family reunion. That appears in every child’s mind, especially if they grow up in the countryside – where family is the closest relationship. That big rush can be drawn as a South – North Migration, like the imagination of the birds flying to the south to escape from the coldness of winter. Vietnamese in Saigon move to the North to return their warm nests.
Nguyen Hue - a big street - has become the flower street in Tet Holiday. Before the New Year Eve, people from rural areas concentrate to Saigon to see flowers. After the New Year Eve, only some local Saigon people walk around and enjoy some quiet days.
The closer Tet is coming, the bigger the flow of people to the North becomes. In High Way No.1, there are huge crowded of people standing on the pavement, trying to stop ANY available car passing by to have a seat back home. The craziness of moving makes Saigon shakes greatly. Markets welcome a huge number of consumers. They come to grab any “city gifts” by the year awarded money to take home. The city is sparkling in lights of goods and beautiful things. Meanwhile, the countryside is in simple colors and poverty. All Tet gifts are welcomed. People spend their last penny to buy anything that they can bring home to offer poor relatives and families.
Some years ago, I returned home late in the New Year Eve. I saw so many people still crowded on the high way, waving hopelessly any transportation to be home on time for the New Year Celebration. Some faces were so tired. Some people slept on their luggage. Some were so sad to be alone in the middle of far South Region of the country. Their hometowns were so far away in the atmosphere of Tet. That was not fair. There was a yearlong far away from home. I was some of the last one still driving on the street back home. Saigon was closing her eyes, for a night good sleep.
In Vietnamese tradition, people decorate their houses with beautiful flowers bought from flower markets (organized before the New Year Eve). You can enjoy so beautiful kinds of flower in these markets.
In the 1st day of New Year, Saigon is just like a quiet garden. All buildings close. All services stop working. No one stands on street. Huge traffic jams disappear as if they had never been here before. No motorcycle wanders around. No car moves in a rush. That is always a sleepy sunny 1st New Year Day. No one actually care about how Saigon is feeling. Is she lonely?
No garbage. No smoke from motorcycles. No noise. There is only the whistle of winds in middles of bushy tree branches. There is only some giggling sound of Saigon girls walking or riding bicycle around. Saigon is never as quiet as 1st day of New Year is.
I still remember a literature writer wrote in his Notes in Facebook: “Saigon is always an unfamiliar place. It is the hometown of no one. People forget it immediately when they have a chance to get away. No one actually love to be here. Poor my Saigon!”
I feel some sadness passing my heart. Actually, with no one, Saigon is beautiful, in its original appearance, not in a big crowd!
And immigrants are so happy to return home, to be in hugs of mothers, to be in smiles of children. If there were no hard pressure to earn a living, this city would be quiet, and people would be happy in their calm life somewhere in the countryside.
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