So, of course, the season bears little to no resemblance to Christmas in Canada ... lots of glitz and LED lights and decorations, but the weather is ALL wrong and people don’t seem to be in a buying frenzy. It is not an official holiday and so I do wonder what the average Vietnamese person makes of it all. I see lots of little kids dressed up as Santa (and I hope I can take a couple of photos of the child Santas) and Christmas trees are everywhere, but I am not sure what other aspects of Christmas are important. Sometimes I glimpse sights that seem more like I would expect to see .... but it's always good not to have too many hard and fast ideas about what Vietnam is or what constitutes the authentic Vietnam.
So ... several of us went to a Christmas Carol Concert a week or so ago. It featured the International Choir and Orchestra of Ho Chi Minh City. It was held in St Paul’s Convent Chapel, which is in District 1, close to where lots of expats live and shop. The concert was fairly ambitious, with Vivaldi’s Magnificat as the centrepiece of the program. Overall, it was a lovely performance, although the acoustics were not very balanced and as we were off to the side, we couldn’t hear very clearly. As an aside, I was talking to my friend, Lily, yesterday and she said the Doha Community Orchestra and Doha Singers’ concerts were yesterday and they went really well. I have a sense that perhaps the choir in Qatar is slightly more pulled together. I think several people in the audience were rather expecting Jingle Bells and Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but for those of us who had read the program and knew what to expect, it was very lovely. As for the others, I saw quite a bit of texting going on, so I guess they were occupied well enough. Quiet, anyway.
Chapel is really a misnomer, as the church seems to be cathedral-sized. It is fairly simple in design and decoration and is immaculate. I really hope I can return again in the daytime, as the grounds look amazing. The whole complex seems to take up most of a large city block. I am not sure how many nuns live at the convent or what they do there, but there seem to be lots of buildings. Someone mentioned an orphanage, but they may have been speculating. To get to the chapel entrance, we had to go down a couple of very narrow streets. How narrow? You could drive a motorbike, but a car could definitely not go down these streets ... almost like hu tongs in China, I would suppose. People’s houses opened right onto the street and I felt quite voyeuristic as we walked down the lanes, as people were sleeping and eating and watching TV and drinking tea and chatting. Some people still had little stands set up to sell things. Everyone seemed very friendly and courteous as several hundred primarily foreign concert-goers scurried along their laneways; the children were especially cute as they waved and said, “Hello, Hello!”.
Then we had the RMIT Christmas Party on Friday. It was held in the food court area. Lots and lots of food and an open bar with beer and wine. Small presents for all. It was all very cheery and it was nice to finally lay eyes on the President, Professor Merilyn Liddell, who has been out of the country for much of the time I have been at RMIT Vietnam.
There was homegrown entertainment in the form of some singing, dancing, and even a fashion show. All the entertainment was provided by our Vietnamese staff ... the foreign staff must wither be untalented or stick-in-the-muds .. or would that be sticks-in-the mud? No fun, anyway. I am sure it took a long time to organize this party and it was very nice to have an opportunity to socialize with people from all parts of the university.
Then last night, social butterfly that I am, I went to a wedding party. My Vietnamese teacher, Thuy, had invited her boss and a few of her students to the celebration. That was so nice ... and although we didn’t know the bride and groom personally, we had certainly heard about her family, and it was nice to meet everyone and see what a Vietnamese wedding party is like. 
The event was held in a large venue that seems to cater just to wedding and big parties. Thuy said 400 guests were invited to her brother’s wedding and there must have been 40 or 50 wedding parties at the facility last night. You'd never know there were thousands of people celebrating weddings at the location. Everything was extremely smooth and coordinated. Some of the restaurant personnel wore headsets and so there was really quite discreet communication going on at all times. Quite high-tech. Many wedding photographs are taken well in advance of the party, so there was a pre-wedding video that was being played in between live video of the goings-on for folks who were out of the line of vision. I meant to look at the video more closely, as I have noticed a large number of wedding photos being taken on bridges, especially the red bridge near RMIT and I am wondering the significance of that. At any rate, once in the Nha Hang Ky Hoa, I just got involved in people watching and forgot to look for the bridge.
So, once I made it to the restaurant, I was greeted briefly by the bride and groom.
Thuy’s brother is an engineer in a Japanese company and his English is pretty good. I was then escorted to the table where I signed a long scroll of names. This is where and when I was supposed to deposit my envelope (they don’t give crystal, silver, teapots, or figurines for presents here ... just money). This makes perfect sense when you think about it because the newlyweds will live in Thuy’s family home (with assorted sisters, brothers, in-laws, nieces ... and sometimes their parents, although they tend to spend more time in the country). I am not sure at what point, if at all, the newlyweds will live independently. At any rate, when I got the scoop, I tiptoed down to place my envelope accordingly.
After all the guests were seated, there was a bit of a procession with onto the stage by some dancers wearing traditional costume. These were restaurant employees, I was informed, but it was certainly colourful and very exciting to watch.
They ushered the bride and groom up on stage eventually and then brought up the parents shortly after. There are no equivalents to bridesmaids/best men/ etc, so these folks served the ushering role. There were a couple of short speeches, by Thuy’s father and the emcee. Then there was some toasting and drinking of wine by the families and champagne by the bride and groom. Then wedding couple filled a champagne fountain (which was just for show, as I don’t think anyone had any of it) and cut the cake (ditto) and then the meal started.
While people ate, the wedding party went from table to table thanking the guests ... I don’t think any of them got to sit down and eat. I felt very sorry for the parents, as they all looked tired! Additionally, as the meal was ongoing, there was a wedding singer and then a band. Thuy’s younger brother sang a couple of songs with the band and then some of the groom’s workmates came up and sang. The bride (now changed into another gown) and groom (in a different suit)went up on stage with them. Very good humoured.
The meal was delicious ... how many courses ... first was a crab bisque, followed by a platter of shrimp and pork stir-fried with bamboo shoots. After that there was a beef stew with slices of baguettes and then the final course was a traditional Vietnamese hot pot with fish, crab, shrimp, veggies, and noodles. And big bowls of grapes to finish it off.
The most surprising thing I noted was after the meal, people just started leaving. There wasn’t a dance or visiting ... but when I looked at the exhausted faces of the wedding party, I joined in the diaspora/getaway.
All in all, it was a lovely party. I enjoyed meeting Thuy’s other students who included Norwegian, Danish, British, and Singaporean businessmen (two accompanied by spouses) as well as her boss, Steve, a South African businessman, and his lovely wife, Jenny. 
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