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VIETNAM
Opening Hours
& Festivals
Basic hours of business are 7.30-11.30am and 1.30-4.30pm. Most offices
close on Sunday, and many now also close on Saturdays following
the recent introduction of a five-day (forty-hour) working week.
State-run banks and government offices are adjusting their hours
accordingly, and this new law may affect the opening times of certain
museums and tourist sights.
Most tourist offices and tour agents open all weekend and, on weekdays,
may keep going into the evening. Museums usually close one day a
week, generally on Mondays, and their core opening hours are 8-11am
and 2-4pm. Temples and pagodas occasionally close for lunch but
are otherwise open all week and don't close until late evening.
Festivals
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.
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 - age is reckoned by the new year and not by
individual birthdays. Everyone cleans their house from top to bottom,
pays off debts, and makes offerings to Ong Tau, the Taoist god of
the hearth. The eve of Tet explodes into a cacophony of drums and
percussion and the subsequent week is marked by feasting on special
foods. For tourists, Tet can be a great time to visit Vietnam, but
it pays to note that not only does most of Vietnam close down for
the week after the new year, but either side of the holiday local
transport services are stretched to the limit.
Festivals of interest to tourists include the Water Puppet Festival
held at Thay Pagoda, west of Hanoi (Feb ); the two-week Buddhist
full moon festival at the Perfume Pagoda , west of Hanoi (March-April
); Tet Doan Ngo , the summer solstice, which is marked by festivities
and dragon boat races (late May to early June); and Trung Thu, also
known as Children's Day, when dragon dances take place and children
are given lanterns in the shape of stars, carp or dragons (Sept-Oct). |
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