This is my first time joining this community and also participating in it's competition. I guess I was drawn to the title of Introduce Your City and I felt I was somewhat obligated to share the beauty, culture and history of the place that I'm currently residing in. It isn't my home country but a place that I've learned to call home.
For this week's contest, it's all about sharing the Christmas spirit or any festive holiday. Thankfully, I do have some photos of previous year Christmas decoration in my city, Ho Chi Minh City - Vietnam.
This is the famous Notre Dame Cathedral Church in HCMC. It is at least 100 years old and have been undergoing restoration work for more than 3 years and still no where near completion. You can't see the restoration work from the front but from behind, the entire building is barricaded up. In the month of December, there are more tourist visiting this church to take photos - more than the usual months.
On Christmas month, the cathedral would put up this stage just outside the church gate so that everyone can come and pray and of course take photos. This was taken last year just before Vietnam went through a huge lock down. Since then, I've not been able to go to church. All religious groups gatherings are prohibited since we have a huge community spread in HCMC last July. I doubt we'll be able to celebrate Christmas in a big way this year.
I took this photo from my office compound. As I'm working in a residence home, they too decorate the garden area with Christmas lights to welcome the new year. Sadly, this year, we only had a Christmas tree but no Christmas lights like this. Even the residence realised and asked why the Christmas decorations is so pathetic.
Oh yes.. just for you to know, Christmas is not a National Public Holiday in Vietnam. Everyone still goes to work on this auspicious day. So, if you're celebrating Christmas, you'll need to apply leave and you can be sure you'll still be receiving emails & phone calls from your colleagues & clients. However, since gatherings and eating out with friends is a very common thing, at least in HCMC, everyone would celebrate Christmas just as they would celebrate Halloween & Thanksgiving.. because they just love to celebrate all forms of International Day celebration. And yes, there would be gifts exchange but just for the fun of it. Many don't really know the true meaning of Christmas unless he/she is from a Christian family.
GUIDELINES
Does your city hold an annual festival you can report about?
Does your town have a Christmas market or other festive decorations?
What do you plan for Christmas with family and friends?
Do you have a Christmas tree already and is it decorated?
Are people in your city plan to do something special around the holiday or in the run-up?
RULES
Post your article IN the Introduce Your City Community. Crossposts are not eligible for prizes.
Mention IYC Contest Entry in the title of your article.
Post your link in the comment section of this post.
Your posts should be in English or bilingual with English as one of the languages
Please be fair and only post one article per person.
It goes without saying, that all pictures and texts have to be your own.
Not a rule, but request. If you will, mention your country and preferably your city/town as well