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In
the north, the rainy season is from August until November.
Typhoons are frequent, but not too much of a problem.
The north can be
quite chilly in winter (Dec. - Feb.)
The climate in the
Delta is sub-equatorial with two main seasons. The wet
season lasts from May to October with short downpours
occurring almost every day. The dry season lasts from
November to April with the last three months of this
period being very hot and humid.
Annual rainfall
for the South is approximately 80 inches (2,000 millimeters)
while temperatures remain relatively constant - on average
between 77 and 95 F (25-35 C). Between July and November,
Vietnam is hit by random, violent typhoons that develop
off the coast in the South China Sea. They typically
hit the central and north coasts and have been with
increasing frequency over the past few years.
Useful Link:
Today's Weather in Vietnam
- Buonmathuot
| Cam
Ranh | Campha
| Cantho
| Chau
Doc | Da
Nang | Dalat
| Dien
Bien Phu | Dong
Dang | Haiphong
| Hanoi
| Ho
Chi Minh City | Ho
Chi Minh | Lang
Son | Longxuyen
| Moc
Bai | Nam
Dinh | Nha
Trang | Qui
Nhon | Rach
Gia | Saigon
| Vungtau
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The Custom of Chewing
Betel and Areca Nuts
 According
to the legend, this custom was popularized during the
Hung Vuong Era, and closely follows the famous fairy
tale of the "Story of the Betel and Areca Nut".
A quid of betel consists of four materials: an areca
leaf (sweet taste), betel bark (hot taste), a chay root
(bitter taste), and hydrated lime (pungent taste). The
custom of chewing betel nut is unique to Vietnam. Old
health books claim that "chewing betel and areca
nut makes the mouth fragrant, decreases bad tempers,
and makes digesting food easy". A quid of betel
makes people become closer and more openhearted. At
any wedding ceremony, there must be a dish of betel
and areca nut, which people can share as they enjoy
the special occasion.
During festivals or Tet Holidays, betel and areca nut
is used for inviting visitors and making acquaintances.
Sharing a quid of betel with an old friend is like expressing
gratitude for the relationship. A quid of betel and
areca nut makes people feel warm on cold winters days,
and during funerals it relieves sadness. Betel and areca
nuts are also used in offerings. When Vietnamese people
worship their ancestors, betel and areca nut must be
present at the altar.Nowadays, the custom of chewing
betel remains popular in some Vietnamese villages and
among the old.
Tea
- An Indispensable Drink for the Vietnamese
As you walk along the streets, somewhere near
a lamp post, under the shade of a tree, or next to a
door, there is a low table with glass pots containing
different kinds of candies, roasted ground nuts, and
sugar coated cakes. Usually next to these treats, there
is a humble tea cozy with a tray of cups. Around the
table are several small wooden stools. This is traditionally
a complete description of a make-shift tea shop, which
is a very popular part of Vietnamese street life.
 The
first sentence a customer will utter to the shop owner
will invariably be, "One cup of tea, please".
The owner skillfully lifts the cap of the tea cozy,
takes out the tea pot, and then pours the hot tea into
a small cup. The owner then hands the cup of steaming
tea to the customer. This drink is considered indispensable
to every inhabitant of the city. Tea is drunk every
day from the early morning until late at night. People
drink tea at their homes, at their work places, and
even in tea shops on their way to and from work.
Whenever the Vietnamese feel thirsty, they are likely
to look for this drink. It is drunk in both the summer
and the winter months. In the winter, a sip of hot tea
makes you feel warm inside and better able to cope with
the cold temperatures outside.Unlike northerners, whose
preference is for a cup of hot steamy tea, people in
the south like to drink their tea cold, tending to add
ice cubes.
 If
you pay a little more attention to the surroundings
of the average tea table in northern Vietnam, you will
probably notice a very old-looking bamboo pipe leaning
against the edge of a table or kept inside a wooden
box. The pipe is called dieu cay (tobacco water
pipe), and it is said to be one of the typical traits
of the lifestyle in northern Vietnam. To make a dieu
cay, a piece of bamboo pipe up to 0.5 metres in
length with an opening at one end is required. A smaller
wooden pipe is fixed at the other end and it is here
that the tobacco is placed.
A smoker begins by rolling a small amount of tobacco
into his hand before placing it into the small wooden
pipe. He then lifts the open end of the bamboo pipe
to his mouth and lights the tobacco with a burning bamboo
stick while smoking. During smoking, one can hear a
merry noise inside the bamboo pipe. This is caused by
the water contained inside the pipe that is used to
filter the smoke. When the tobacco is completely
burned out, the smoker leans his head backwards and
slowly exhales the smoke from his mouth in order to
appreciate the complete satisfaction and enjoyment that
the smoke has to offer.
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Located in South
East Asia, Vietnam starts to emerge as a major tourist
attraction. Vietnam has two main cities, the political
capital Hanoi and the economic capital Ho
Chi Minh City (also known as Saigon).
| Full country name |
Socialist Republic of
Vietnam |
| Area |
329'566 km
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From
the 1st to the 6th centuries, the south of what is now
Vietnam was part of the Indianised kingdom of Funan.
The Hindu kingdom of Champa appeared around present-day
Danang in the late 2nd century and had spread south
to what is now Nha Trang by the 8th century. The Chinese
conquered the Red River Delta in the 2nd century and
their 1000-year rule, marked by tenacious Vietnamese
resistance and repeated rebellions, ended in 938 AD
when Ngo Quyen vanquished the Chinese armies at the
Bach Dang River.
During the next few centuries, Vietnam repulsed repeated
invasions by China, and expanded its borders southwards
from the Red River Delta, populating much of the Mekong
Delta. In 1858, French and Spanish-led forces stormed
Danang after several missionaries had been killed. A
year later, Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) was seized.
By 1867, France had conquered all of southern Vietnam,
which became the French colony of Cochin-China.
Communist guerillas
under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh resisted French
domination. Ho Chi Minh's declaration of Vietnamese
independence after WWII sparked violent confrontations
with the French, culminating in the French military
defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
The Geneva Accords
of 1954 temporarily divided Vietnam into two zones (the
Communist north and the anti-Communist, US-supported
south). Political and ideological opposition quickly
turned to armed struggle, prompting the USA and other
countries to commit combat troops in 1965. The Paris
Peace Agreements, signed in 1973, provided an immediate
cease-fire and signalled the withdrawal of US troops.
Saigon eventually capitulated to the Communist forces
on 30 April 1975.
Going straight from
the fat into the frying pan, Vietnam had barely drawn
breath from its war with America when it found itself
at loggerheads with Khmer Rouge forces along the Cambodian
borders. A protracted round of fighting eventually saw
China enter the fray in support of Cambodia and the
killings continued until the UN brokered a deal, with
Vietnamese forces being pulled out of Cambodia in 1989.
Although the Khmer Rouge continued to snipe from the
borders, it was the first time since WWII that Vietnam
was not officially at war with any other nation. The
end of the Cold War and the collapse of the USSR in
1991 caused Vietnam and Western nations to seek rapprochement.
In July 1995 even
intransigent America re-established diplomatic relations
with Hanoi although the diplomatic handshake appeared
limp-wristed and begrudging when Hanoi refused to sign
trade agreements with the US in 1999. The US, on their
part, talked about normalising relations but 25 years
later there's still a lot of soul-searching, hand-wringing
and post mortems going on, accompanied by a slather
of angst-ridden films and a handful of unplugged guitar
tunes. Matters aren't helped by spokespersons such as
John McCain who, on a recent visit to Hanoi, talked
about 'the wrong guys winning the war'. Vietnam went
through something of a postwar economic boom but in
recent years the economy has slowed and the country
is at a crossroads, although some commentors predict
it will be the next Asian 'tiger'.
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The
Vietnamese language belongs to a language group which
was established a long time ago in East Asia. Changes
in material conditions over many centuries and the increasing
demands of cultural life have influenced the Vietnamese
language.
While adopting many elements of the Chinese language,
the Vietnamese people changed many Chinese words,
gradually creating Han-Viet (Chinese-Vietnamese) which
incorporated purely Vietnamese words. "Vietnamization"
not only applied to the Chinese language, but also to
French and other language groups, creating a diverse
vocabulary for the Vietnamese language.
Written
Language
When the multi-ethnic Vietnamese nation was taking
shape, a great monarchy was established in the North,
and it began a southward expansion. The Vietnamese nation
underwent thousands of years of Northern domination.
This was why Chinese was used for a long time as the
official written language. Local mandarins of various
levels were allowed to sit for examinations in the Northern
Court (China), and were recruited into the administrative
machinery of foreign invaders.
Based on Chinese characters, the Vietnamese worked out
a unique writing system of their own called Chu Nom.
In Chu Nom, two Chinese characters were usually
combined, one of which indicated the meaning of the
Vietnamese word, while the other indicated pronunciation.
Chu Nom was welcomed and widely used by the masses
in their daily life, as well as in transcribing their
national history and literature. According to researchers,
Chu Nom probably originated around the end of
the Northern domination period and early in the 10th
century (the independence period). The oldest evidence
of Chu Nom currently available is a stele in
the Bao An Pagoda in Yen Lang, Vinh Phu province, dating
back to 1209 AD (Ly Dynasty). It was not until the 13th
century under the Tarn dynasty that Chu Nom was
systematized and used in literature.
Nguyen Thuyen (alias Han Thuyen) and Nguyen Si Co wrote
poems in Chu Nom. Ho Quy Ly (1400 AD) made Chinese
textbooks which translated the Vietnamese language using
the Chu Nom writing system. He also used Chu
Nom to write royal proclamations and ordinances.
In the 15th century, Nguyen Trai, a national hero, used
Chu Nom to write 250 poems in Quoc Am Thi Tap
(Collection of Poems in the National Language). The
Chu Nom literature continued to be developed
from the 16th century onwards and totally dominated
national literary circles. Ba Huyen Thanh Quan (the
wife of the Chief of Thanh Quan district), Cao Ba Quat
and Kieu Story of Nguyen Du, and the translation of
Chinh Phu Ngam (Lament of a Wife Whose Husband has Gone
to War) by Doan Thi Diem were quite noteworthy poems.
In conjunction with the development of the nation, the
Vietnamese language was constantly developed and improved.
Around the 17th century, western missionaries came to
Vietnam and learned Vietnamese in order to disseminate
Catholicism. They developed a romanced script to represent
the Quoc Ngu (meaning national language) in
order to translate prayer books and catechisms. A number
of Portuguese and Italian missionaries used Quoc
Ngu to compile catechisms and Portuguese-Vietnamese
and Vietnamese-Portuguese dictionaries. Based on these
works, Alexandre de Rhodes, a French Jesuit missionary,
published the Vietnamese Portuguese-Latin dictionary
which was a fundamental catechism in Rome from 1649-1651.
After Alexandre de Rhodes, Quoc Ngu was further
improved by foreign missionaries and Vietnamese scholars.
In 1867, some colonial schools began to teach Quoc
Ngu. It was not until early in the 20th century
that Quoc Ngu became widely used in the local
primary educational system. The introduction of Quoc
Ngu constituted a new step in the development
of the Vietnamese language. While romanization received
a reserved welcome in other Asian countries, it recorded
extraordinary success in Vietnam, creating favorable
conditions for cultural and intellectual development.
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The
major religious traditions in Vietnam are Buddhism (which
fuses forms of Taoism and Confusianism), Christianity
(Catholicism and Protestantism), Islam, Cao Daism and
the Hoa Hao sect.
Buddhism
Buddhism was first introduced to Vietnam in the 4th
century B.C., and reached its peak in the Ly dynasty
(11th century). It was then regarded as the official
religion dominating court affairs. Buddhism was preached
broadly among the population and it enjoyed a profound
influence on people's daily life. Its influence also
left marks in various areas of traditional literature
and architecture. As such, many pagodas and temples
were built during this time.
At the end of the 14th century, Buddhism began to show
signs of decline. The ideological influence of Buddhism,
however, remained very strong in social and cultural
life. Presenty, over 70 percent of the population of
Vietnam are either Buddhist or strongly influenced by
Buddhist practices.
 Catholicism
Catholicism was introduced to Vietnam in
the 17th century. At present the most densely-populated
Catholic areas are Bui Chu-Phat Diem in the northern
province of Ninh Binh and Ho Nai-Bien Hoa in Dong Nai
province to the South. About 10 percent of the population
are considered Catholic.
Protestantism
Protestantism was introduced to Vietnam at about the
same time as Catholicism. Protestantism, however, remains
an obscure religion. At present most Protestants live
in the Central Highlands. There still remains a Protestant
church on Hang Da Street in Hanoi. The number of Protestants
living in Vietnam is estimated at 400,000.
Islamic
I slamic
followers in Vietnam are primarily from the Cham ethnic
minority group living in the central part of the central
coast. The number of Islamic followers in Vietnam totals
about 50,000.
Caodaism
Caodaism was first introduced to the country in 1926.
Settlements of the Cao Dai followers in South Vietnam
are located near the the Church in Tay Ninh.The number
of followers of this sect is estimated at 2 million.
Hoahaoism
Hoahaoism was first introduced to Vietnam in 1939. More
than 1 million Vietnamese are followers of this sect.
Most of them live in the western part of South Vietnam.
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