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Vietnam Culture and Religion
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In recent years, there is a noticeable trend in more visitors who visit Vietnam not only for leisure and sight-seeing, but also to learn more about its culture and rich heritage.
Due to this nation’s past encounters with wars, there are many historical monuments across the country that attract visitors. Some of the more popular cities include Hanoi and Ho Chin Minh City with high accessibility to international airports.
| Common Traditions & Perceptions |
In most Vietnam families, 3-4 generations usually live under one roof. Traditional family roles still exist of which internal matters such as households chores are usually handled by wife and external matters taken care by the husband. All children are expected to live with their parents until marriage and are obligated to take care of their elderly parents till death. Men in Vietnam usually tie the knot between the age of 20-30 and women between the age of 18-25. The marriage has to be approved by both parents. After the marriage, the wife is supposed to do housework under the supervision of her mother-in-law.
Prevailing customs of weddings, funerals are all attached to the village community, thus marriages have to meet the interests of the family and the village. As of this, many formalities are created from the plighting ceremony, the official proposal to the bride’s family, the wedding to the marriage tie, the ritual of sharing bridal cup of wine, the newly-weds’ first visit to the bride’s family. Interestingly, the bride has to pay some kind of fine to the village as an administration fee to enter into the village.
By and large, women in Vietnam are not allowed to shake hands with each other or with men. They are also not allowed to smoke in the public. However, persons of the same sex are allowed to hold hands in public or sleep in the same bed without public derision. Overall, equality among both sexes is witness under the legal concept but socially, men are still considered to be more superior.
| Generally Accepted Behaviour |
Behavior in Family
Children in the family are regarded as having no rights. Daughters are expected to help out with the house chores and marriages are usually arranged. Being in a traditional country, taboo topics such as sexual matters are not discussed within the family.
Upon marriage, women are to care for the husband unconditionally. An extreme example would include a wife whose husband contracted HIV would be expected to comply to the husband’s request of making love with protection. She has no rights to reject and parents of both sides will usually support the husband's decision.
Behavior in workplace
In a traditional Vietnamese organization, all individuals are usually given well-defined roles and an immediate superior to report to. During meetings, superiors have to grant permissions to the staff before they can voice their opinions. Going against the superiors’ views would be a very severe breach of etiquette.
| Food & Drinks |
Vietnamese are more inclined towards rice, vegetables, fish, meat, spices and sauces as their main course in meals. Most of the food is usually cooked with little oil or boiling. Vietnamese cuisine is known for its strict selection of ingredients, with preference of ingredients native to Vietnam.
Vietnamese drink tea everywhere and at any time including occasions such as formal meetings, after meals, at weddings and funerals. They also place cups of tea on altars as an offering to their ancestors.
In addition, drinking of alcohol is exclusively a male activity.
| Language |
Vietnamese is the official language and is spoken throughout the country, albeit with variations of dialect. The second most spoken language is English, followed by Russian and French amongst older people in the south.
Many of Vietnam’s 54 ethnic groups speak their own language, and some K’mer is spoken in the Mekong Delta close to the Cambodian border.
| Religion |
There is a diverse mix of religion in Vietnam. The more common ones are Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, Confucianism, Christianity, Caodaism, Protestantism and Islam.
Amongst all, Buddhism is the dominant religion with more than 10 million followers. Mahayana Buddhism and Theravada are the two types of Buddhist religious beliefs in Vietnam. It is believed that Buddhism has assisted the Vietnamese land fertile to grow roots and successfully develop impact on the spiritual life of Vietnamese. So as to show thankfulness to Buddha, Vietnam devotees generally worship Buddha at home as well as visiting pagodas on the first and fifteenth day of each lunar month. As a result, a unique identity of the country was successfully created. Up till today, Vietnam’s Buddhism now boasts 15,000 places of worship and 40,000 dignitaries, monks and nuns.
Catholicism is second strong religion in Vietnam with as many as 6 million followers, approximately 7% of Vietnam population. The followers are mainly concentrated in the south, and are reportedly becoming the religion of young urban Vietnamese who are enjoying the fruits of the country's rapid economic growth.
An unusual religion that evolved in Vietnam was Cao Dais. This religion that was witnessed in Mekong River Delta in 1926 was a combination of Buddhist, Christian, Taoist and Confucianist ideals. The initiation of this religion was strongly opposed by the government due to cult belief, however, today, Cao Daism is once again flourishing, with an estimated of 2 million followers. Cao Daism temple
s, such as Tay NInh and Danang that usually have very unique combination of Roman Catholics and Chinese pagoda feel in their exterior designs successfully became one of the popular tourist sites of Vietnam.| Celebrations |
The most celebrated holiday in Vietnam is Tet, the Lunar New Year. This festival is generally celebrated during the full moon prior to the spring planting which appear to be in late January to mid February. Regardless of religion, everyone in Vietnam, travel with gifts to their child
Other Vietnamese holidays include of Hai Ba Trung and Tet Trung Thu. Hai Ba Trung is a special day in March specifically selected to honor the Trung sisters, the pair of warrior sisters that fight Chinese out of Vietnam nearly 2000 years ago. Tet Trung Thu, another festival celebrated in mid September is known as the harvest festival. On this day, children are specially dress up and parade through the streets carrying colorful, shape d paper lanterns. National holidays include a day in March to commemorate the reunification of Vietnam (April 30), Workers day (May 1), and National day (September 2).
Birthdays in Vietnam are celebrated every year from when the baby is one month old, one year old and usually up to their adulthood.
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Latest page update: made by _wii_
, Nov 10 2009, 1:44 AM EST
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