Learn more about other Vietnam’s cool cultural facts and traditions here

Wearing Pajamas as Day Wear

There’s nothing better than staying in a set of soft and comfy pajamas at home. And in Vietnam, you see women in pajamas literally everywhere! They are on motorbikes, walking down the streets, or serving in food stalls, especially in the rural areas. It’s basically normal, no big deal here; it’s not that they forgot to dress up before going out, it’s that pajamas are a fashion choice here. Pajama sets come in a range of sizes and styles, from matching floral T-shirts and shorts to full-length silk pants and long-sleeved shirts.

Self Ear Cleaning anytime anywhere

You might have noticed many people in Vietnam, especially men, have an incredibly long pinkie fingernail; it is actually linked to the purpose of sel-ear cleaning. Not just that, the Vietnamese use little spoons, chopsticks, tweezers, or even toothpicks wrapped in tissues to scoop out the wax and tickle the skin. You might think it is terrifying but many Vietnamese people love it. Convenient. Anytime. Anywhere.

English songs for Holidays and Anniversaries

‘Beautiful in White’ on Weddings, ‘Merry Christmas’, ‘Last Christmas’ played in shops over the holiday, and Happy New Year – ABBA on the New Year’s Eve – All the good old English songs are all over the place in Vietnam when the right events come. There is no explanation for why the Vietnamese stick with those songs for decades. It becomes an indispensable and unexplainable tradition in this country. If you want to trace back to the holiday vibes in the 20th century, Vietnam seems to be the right place.

Fun fact: The top and most recent comments on Happy New Year ABBA come from the Vietnamese

Bamboo Pipe Smoking

Smoking in Vietnam is highly common, with an estimation of over 15 million tobacco smokers, and over 33 million non-smokers who are heavily exposed to tobacco smoke. Communal smoking started as an integral part of Vietnamese culture in the way men exchanged cigarettes in greetings. A popular and traditional form of smoking in Vietnam is Thuoc Lao, or Dieu Cay – the farmers’ bamboo pipe, which is often passed around after a meal to help with the digestion process. Thuoc Lao are leaves of Nicotiana rustica plant put inside a long pipe in which people can smoke through and just one shot, a flood of high nicotine to the bloodstream pushes even the heaviest regular cigarette smokers down onto the floor, off the limit, with a strong dizziness in the head and a rapid heartbeat out of the chest. Despite the health risks that Thuoc Lao poses, it remains very popular in Vietnam, mainly in the Northern part.

While having some free green tea on the sidewalks, you might be offered some bamboo pipe shots, it’s up to you whether to say no or give it a try. But remember, we give you a warning in advance already!

Foreigners tried smoking the bamboo pipe and the results

Choosing a custom phone number

In Vietnamese culture, lucky numbers play a big part in most people’s life. Numbers like 1, 6, 8, 9 are thought as lucky, and the opposite normally goes to number 4, 13. The Vietnamese also believe a good combination of digits in their phone number can bring them luck. They choose their phone numbers based on their birthday, or just a sequence of “beautiful digits”, most popularly triple, quadruple eight or nine. Some wealthy people pay a lot of money in order to acquire a phone number. For instance, mobile number 0989 999 999 was sold for USD 664,000 in reality in Vietnam. Whereas some people find the joy out of those lucky phone numbers, we find it frustrating to keep double-checking the sequence whenever we try to save contacts.

Phone wallpaper as a picture of themselves

Most Vietnamese peoples phone wallpaper is a picture of themselves. It is not only common in Vietnam but also in Asia where people (mostly women) like setting their phone wallpaper as the picture of themselves. Whether it is a selfie, a picture of themselves traveling around, or an artistic shoot, there is always their face, just there. It has become a trend that we can hardly explain. It’s probaly a very good thing. Imagine … if they lost their phone and you found it, you don’t have to check if it had a lock that they could open to confirm, because just by looking at their wallpaper, you know it’s theirs, just like an ID card.

Coffee Made from Weasel Poop

Traditionally known as one of the best coffees in the world, Vietnam’s weasel coffee is made from the poop of weasels after they eat the ripest and sweetest coffee berries and let the seeds out. These seeds are picked, washed, dried for 3 days under the sun, then ready for roasting, bagging, and selling, just like other coffees. What makes weasel coffee stand out is its great aroma thanks to the interaction between the weasel’s digestive enzymes and beans. The finest coffee can cost you around $100 for 100 grams, and for every 1kg of coffee berries, there is only 0. 3 kg of poop.

If you also have discovered funny, exciting things in Vietnam, please feel free to share us!

The post 7 Weird Things You’ll Only See in Vietnam | An Insight Into Local Life appeared first on Maze Vietnam.

Having existed for over 20 years by far, Thổ Hà, a village in Bac Giang Province Northeastern Vietnam, is recognized as a well-known trade village making rice paper with more than 400 families involved in. The place was inherently a pottery village back in the 50s of the 20^th century and has “changed its shirt” to produce rice and rice paper since the 90s.

As being said, the village first appeared in the 12^th century and got to be one of the 3 oldest pottery villages of Vietnam, besides Phù Lãng and Bát Tràng. Surrounded by Cầu River, Tho Ha soon became a bursting commercial port in the Gulf of Tonkin*. The extreme prosperity rewarded its citizens with splendid temples, pagodas, village main gate, and other magnificent buildings. Until the year of 1988 when goods made of plastic took over, the pottery village was dissolved in the lack of popularity and markets, which marked the end of its 900-year golden age. Fortunately, it seems like a good chance as it opened a new door for later generations in the village. They started making different kinds of rice paper and noodles from rice flour.

Frequently, rice is soaked for one night and grounded in the next morning. It then gets spread on a large pan and dried on a bamboo wattle where it takes 2 to 3 hours to get done. Simple as it sounds but the quality depends much upon the craftsmen’s experience, especially for the soaking and spreading technology. In addition, the weather is another important factor that should be taken into account. Heavy rain can make the rice papers fusty and excessive sunlight will turn them to be crunchy and easily – broken. Rice paper is considered in good quality when it reaches the status of softness, tough, thin, unbroken and light salty.

Nowadays, given high technology with electric devices, labor productivity is much increased to 3 or 4 times. Besides appearing in the inland market, products of Tho Ha are exported to Taiwan, South, Korea and Japan with high popularity.

*Gulf of Tonkin: given name for Northern Vietnam, as called Vịnh Bắc Bộ in Vietnamese, along with Annam (Central Vietnam) and CochinChine (Southern Vietnam). Tonkin is the French pronunciation for Đông Kinh in Vietnamese.

The post An insight into Tho Ha Rice Paper Village appeared first on Maze Vietnam.

As our culture and perspective are partly but greatly affected by Chinese cultural beliefs, the story, for that reason, owns its origin to that of China about the Kitchen God, God of the Soil and Household God or also known as the legend of “two men and a woman” in Vietnamese understanding. The story begins with a woman named Thị Nhi and her husband Trọng Cao. Not long after their happy marriage, they found out that they could not have a child. This made Trọng Cao so angry that he hit Nhi badly and then cast her out of the house. Sadly leaving in pain, Nhi wandered day by day until she arrived at another land where she met her second destined lover, Phạm Lang. Meanwhile, Trọng Cao, for being too ashamed and regretful of his precarious action, decided to pack his back and got on the way to find his dear wife without knowing that Nhi was someone else’s bride. Until a day when the searching seemed to end hopelessly for the exhaustion of both money and groceries, Trọng Cao finally found Nhi’s house. For the appreciation of one-time sentiment and respect for her ex-husband, Nhi invited Trọng Cao in, greeted him warmly and gave him food. Unluckily, Phạm Lang just returned home. Afraid of being exposed, Nhi quickly hid Trọng Cao in a pile of straw in the garden at the back of the house. Unfortunately, Phạm Lang suddenly fired the straw to make fertilizer for his land. Nhi was frightened and jumped into the fire to save Trọng Cao. Seeing his wife in the fire, Phạm Lang, without thinking, also jumped into the fire to save her.

The story ended in the everlasting burning fire where the three people would be forever together without worrying about this mundane life. However, in the heaven, for wanting their death and sacrifice to be worthwhile and memorable, the Heaven’s King decided to promote them from human to Gods: Whereas Phạm Lang is the Kitchen God in charge of the cooking, Thị Nhi is the Household God taking care of shopping for groceries in the house and Trọng Cao is the God of the Soil responsible for land and farming. These Gods will later be the supervisors over every household, bringing happiness, luck, prosperity and they even protect every family from evil spirits. Traditionally, near the end of the year on 23^rd of January to the Moon Calendar, the three Gods will make a trip which usually lasts for 7 days to Heaven to report the King about the good and bad things that occur around the life of the family. The occasion is also a significant draw in Vietnamese people’s mindset of cultural tradition. Usually, most of the Vietnamese will celebrate the day formally with good food prepared for the Gods to pray for happiness and prosperity and hope that these wishes will soon come true in the new year.

While according to Chinese legend, the Gods’ “vehicles” are horses, their main transports, according to Vietnamese regard, are carps. This explains why the Kitchen God day, which to celebrate and say farewell to the Gods, varies quite greatly from China to Vietnam. Whereas back in the day in China, they would feed the horses and carefully took care of them in the hope that their Gods would have a safe trip to Heaven; in Vietnam, we usually have a sub-day called fish-setting-free day to see out the creature that will take the Gods to Heaven. In the thought that has been formed and carved from the pre-existing generations, the legend of carp turning into a dragon has a certain importance of meaning. Partly because Vietnamese culture is severely affected by Chinese perception, abstract ideas or so-called imaginary legends. The transformation of a carp into a dragon refers to the Vietnamese’ sublimation, constancy, and willingness to overcome the hardships and obstacles to achieve a better life. That is why this tradition has soon become a cultural beauty of our country.

Tết is indeed the time for family and the moment when true core value of cultural tradition is highly rated and appreciated. That is why Vietnamese people will treasure each of these moments when we are still living and breathing in the Spring of another Lunar New Year that is about to come.

The post The Kitchen God Day in Vietnam appeared first on Maze Vietnam.

There are two parts of the costume: a pair of loose trousers and a gown with the back and front flaps floating back and front gently. And this dress often goes with conical leaf hat.

On a beautiful Sunday (16/10/2016), there was a Festival Ao Dai held in The Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, Ba Dinh. Here are some photos that Minh captured during the Festival.” – Chi Le

Please click on the photos below to see them in full size.

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