Locals were lighting Lanterns like these everywhere, and if successful, they'd float up to the sky and drift over the lake late into the night. We Also saw a lot of lanterns catch fire, or get hung up in trees and then plummet to the ground, scattering the crowds...
The lake at the heart of Hanoi's Old Quarter, and the stage for midnight fireworks. The little orange streaks in the sky are all those lanterns rising.
New Year's Day offerings at a local Pagoda.
I totally lucked out when I discovered that I'd be in Vietnam's capital city, Hanoi, for their biggest Holiday of the year. Tet, akin to the Chinese New Year, is such a big deal in Vietnam that many businesses have closed for several days, or as long as 2 weeks, and the entire country has been flooded by relatives returning from overseas, booking up train/bus/plane tickets and pushing up prices on nearly everything. While Tet has put some minor limitations on my travels, it has also been absolutely incredible to interact with the locals while they celebrate. On New Year's eve I met up with Russell from the Halong Bay trip, and the Doyle family who left the following day. We wandered through the streets amidst throngs of locals and watched bits and pieces of performances happening on the stages that blocked roads around the lake. Lion Dancers paraded through the crowds with loud drummers and a trail of followers. Vendors all along the roads sold ballons in the shapes of Oxes or flowers(and Hello Kitty, naturally), popcorn, mangoes, dried squid and paper lanterns to buy and release. Locals lit lanterns all over the place and we saw several disasters and some burnt mid-flight and landed within inches of people in the crowd. The police batted down the ones that got hung up in trees. The police also created barricades around the fireworks stage with razor wire, which seemed a bit excessive, but obviously worked.
Russell and I parted ways with the Doyles when they went inside to warm up and watch the fireworks from the balcony of their hotel. We wandered through the streets until nearly midnight when the fireworks started and then set up camp in a group of Vietnamese teenagers who thought Russell's glowing devil horns were pretty hilarious. The fireworks at midnight were a pretty cool, but not as spectacular as the Symphony of Fire I'm used to in Vancouver. Once the chaos settled down and people started to go home I found a backpacker bar for one last beer and made my way back to the hotel late at night.
In Hanoi the next morning, a lot of museums and sights were closed for the holidays, but the locals flooded the temples and pagodas to offer prayers for the New Year. Russell and I teamed up to navigate the city and check out some of the festivities. All of the children accompanying their parents were dressed in something akin to their "Sunday Best" - which meant that the little boys had specially tailored suits and the girls had little faux-fir jackets and tailored suits as well. The pagodas were packed and smoky with all the incense. Many people purchased fake money, in either American or Vietnamese currencies, and burnt it in piles along the roads or in the fire pits in the pagodas... If anyone understands this tradition please let me know! Most restaurants, cafes and the like were shut down for the holiday, so in between pagoda visits and sightseeing I had my first taste of Pho and Vietnamese coffee (brewed strong & mixed with condensed milk at the bottom) from local street vendors along the way. I was amazed to see the locals out and about celebrating the holiday with their family and felt so fortunate to take part in the festivities. I got a lot of big smiles with my pathetic attempt at "Chuc mung nam moi" too :)
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