Saigon loves a party

For the Saigonese, Christmas and New Year are just parts I and II of two months of annual festivity. It all starts in mid-December when Christmas decorations go up, and climaxes with part III, Vietnamese New Year, known as Tet, which usually falls 4 or 5 weeks after the Western version in late January or early February.

The Saigonese love a party. The Christmas / New Year / Tet binge might be the climax of the year's celebrations, but there are plenty of other dates worth hitting the streets for. At Christmas, there's no concern that only a small percentage of the population is Christian. The birth of Christ is a side issue for most. A party's a party.

Halloween, Valentine's Day, International Womens' Day, Mid Autumn Festival, 30 April (aka. Liberation Day) are all celebrated with an enthusiasm that might lead you to believe they're all equally Saigonese festivals.


There are spontaneous eruptions as well when Vietnam's national football team scores an important international win.



For most, the party consists of nothing more than jumping on a motorbike with the family and joining the chaotic parade that chokes up the downtown area of the city. It's a simple pleasure but one that clearly means a lot.

If you're travelling to Saigon during December, January or February, you're bound to get swept up in the fun. But be warned, it comes to an abrupt end after the Vietnamese New Year passes and a more family focused tradition takes hold. Saigon's sizeable immigrant population returns to the countryside, others head to the beach and everyone that's left seems to stay at home.

It's a good time to get a sense of what Saigon might have felt like with a population of a couple of million rather than the current bulging 8 million.

It's also worth noting that a lot of restaurants and shops are closed for at least a couple of days during Tet.

I experienced my first taste of the Saigon festive spirit way back in 1990. I'd travelled aboard the first post-war Qantas flight between Australia and Vietnam. The flight was rich with the symbolism of a new time for Vietnam. The US trade embargo on Vietnam was still firmly in place. But everyone knew that times were changing. That flight was the start of a wave that would see tens of thousands of Australian Vietnamese return home after leaving at the end of the war, or by boat soon after.

In 1990, Saigon was taking its first breath of fresh air following 15 stifling years of doctrinaire post-war communism that followed more than a decade of bloody war. The city's seemingly irrepressible commercial spirit was almost broken. Almost.

One of the most vivid memories of that visit was the shear joy and energy of the Christmas crowd that gathered on Nguyen Hue St. I've never forgotten it. Since then, I've watched the numbers swell each year. The fashion sense has evolved as has the general sense of affluence with more flashy bikes and expensive cars. But the spirit endures.

Back then, Christmas eve was a more sensible mix of walkers, cyclists and motorcycles. The people were obviously not wealthy, but there was plenty of that irrepressible positive Saigon energy. There were very few Westerners around town in those days and we were given an overwhelming welcome.

In 1990, Vietnam's per capita GDP was not much more than $200 per year.

22 years later, per capita GDP has grown almost 7 times. But Vietnam is facing new challenges with a banking system in crisis, a faltering economy, and corruption eroding the legitimacy of the ruling Communist Party.


Despite the hardship, this year's festivity has been as spirited as ever. The party must go on.

And while the two month Christmas, New Year, Tet run is the biggest celebration of the year, the Saigonese have spent the past two decades embracing and then stamping their own unique style on other events in the Western calendar.

Halloween has become especially big, running for the better part of a week in 2012 - the streets and bars packed over several nights with young people decked out in an impressive array of fancy dress.


For the Vietnamese, Halloween is more a chance for risqué exhibitionism than the Gothic themes that are more common in the West. And the party's always more important than the event being celebrated.

Saigon's appetite for a party is on display any weekend, but during Halloween and the two month Christmas build-up to Tet, you'd be hard pressed to find a city in the world with as much festive fervour - even when the economic chips are down.


Tet in 2013 falls on the 10th of February. There's likely to be plenty of commotion on the 9th - especially late - but things will go very quiet right after that.