Vietnamese Culture

 I. Story Legend.

With 4,000 thousand years of history under its belt, the literary treasure of Vietnam is very plentiful, including countless myths, legends, and folk tales. I grew up hearing these stories from my mother, read them in my textbooks in school, and watched cartoons based on these stories on television. These myths and legends are a part of my childhood. I want to share these interesting stories with you so you can learn a little more about Vietnam. Just by listening, you can explore the historical events and the ancient folk stories of the Vietnamese people through these stories. 

a. The legend of Lac Long Quan and Au Co

This legend explains the origin of Vietnamese, and why there are people living in the mountainous areas while others live in the plains and near the sea.

b.The legends of Son Tinh – Thuy Tinh (Mountain God – Water God)

Tan Vien Son Thanh (known as the Mountain God) - The myths and legends about him represent the Vietnamese’s ambition to conquer nature, as well as to expand and build the country. Some people said that the legend explains why the sea level suddenly rose by 3.5 meters 4000 years ago.

c.   Thanh Giong (Saint Giong)

Phu Dong Thien Vuong (Phu Dong the Sky King, known as Saint Giong) is one of the four immortals in Vietnamese culture. He represents the Vietnamese’s spirit in defending the country, as well as the power of youth.

II. Song

- Traditional Song:

+Quan Ho Bac Ninh: The folk-song Quan Ho, a very rich and beautiful musical storehouse of our people, has a very long-lasting history. During all its existence, successive creations have unceasingly changed the type of the folk-song Quan Ho.

+ Cai Luong (renovated opera): Cai Luong (Renovated Opera) appeared in the southern part of Vietnam in the 1920s. This relatively modern form combines drama, modeled after French comedy, and singing.

III: Sport 

Sports in Vietnam include cycling, soccer, swimming, boxing, karate, tennis, aerobics, badminton and so on. The most common sport is soccer. The youth in the country are the majority of participants in these sports. Vietnam also has various sports clubs and training facilities that are used to train the upcoming sportsmen and sportswomen. 

Soccer in Vietnam

The USA vs Vietnam soccer match, SourceSoccer was introduced in Vietnam by the French in 1896. It was initially introduced in Cochinchina then spread to other regions of the colony, mostly the northern and central regions. This is by far the most common sport in the country. The Association football in the country is governed by the Vietnam Football Federation which oversees the country’s national football teams, and also the national leagues. Two national football teams existed when Vietnam was divided into South Vietnam and North Vietnam. Of the two, the team from North Vietnam was less active, often playing against other Communist states between 1956 and 1966. The team from South Vietnam, on the other hand, participated in the first two AFC Asian Cup finals and finished in fourth place both times.

IV:  Vietnamese Holiday

    -The most important holiday celebrated in Vietnam, and indeed by Vietnamese people worldwide, is Tet, the Vietnamese New Year. Tet is commonly described as Christmas, Thanksgiving and your birthday all celebrated at once. The second most celebrated Vietnamese holiday is the Mid-Autumn Festival. This celebration honors the harvest time and family. There are many other Vietnamese holidays, religious and non-religious, wide-spread and local, influenced by Chinese culture or unique to Vietnam. A great way to celebrate Tet is to attend a Tet festival sponsored by your local Vietnamese American community. Or you can incorporate parts of Tet into your family traditions. Many families celebrate these holidays with their local adoption or Families with Children Adopted from the Vietnam group, either with their local Vietnamese community organizations or independently.

V: Language

   Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt) is an Austroasiatic language that originated in Vietnam, where it is the national and official language. Spoken natively by an estimated 76 million people (as of 2009), it is the native language of the Vietnamese (Kinh) people, as well as a first or second language for the many ethnic minorities of Vietnam.  Vietnamese is the Austroasiatic language with by far the most speakers, several times as many as the rest of the family combined. Its vocabulary has borrowings from Chinese, and it formerly used a modified set of Chinese characters called Chữ Nôm, which were given vernacular pronunciation. The Vietnamese alphabet (chữ quốc ngữ) in use today is a Latin alphabet with additional diacritics for tones and certain letters.

VI: Food

Vietnamese food is known to be both healthy and robust in flavor, thanks to its generous combination of fresh herbs and greens, paired with rice, noodles, seafood, pork, and beef. A typical meal includes rice or noodles, a slice of meat or seafood dish, a vegetable dish, soup, and fermented fish sauce) for dipping, each of which can easily customize according to your preference.

* Pho: Pho is essentially Vietnam’s signature dish, comprising rice noodles in a flavourful soup with meat and various greens or chili sauce. A basic bowl contains eye round steak, beef meatballs or beef flank, topped with bean sprouts, lime wedges, and fresh herbs such as basil, mint, cilantro, and onions.

*Banh Mi: Banh mi is a unique French-Vietnamese sandwich that’s great for when you’re in need of a quick meal.it consists of a toasted baguette sandwich, pickled vegetables, pate, butter, soy sauce, cilantro, chilies, and hot peppers. Most banh mi sellers also offer a wide range of meat fillings, including the quay (roasted pork belly), fried egg, grilled pork, fried fish with turmeric and dill, boiled sausages, Chinese barbecued pork, and grilled chicken.

VII: Traditional Vietnamese Dress (Ao Dai)

When talking about Vietnamese traditional costumes, many of you will just be familiar with the ao dai. However, in addition to the ao dai, our country has many other incredible traditional costumes such as ao tu than, ao Nhat Binh, ao tac, and ao ba ba. Ao dai literally means a long dress, it has long trousers and a two-flap dress with different colors and patterns. A truly elegant piece of clothing, it gives me the pride to see someone dressed this way on the street. Modern Vietnamese women usually wear ao dai for special occasions such as Tet (Vietnamese New Year), weddings, festivals, and ceremonies. In public high schools, schoolgirls have to wear the white ao dai twice a week, on Monday and on an optional weekday. High school female teachers also have to wear the ao dai when they are in class, but they can choose the color and style.

VIII: MY Thought 

I was growing up almost my childhood in Vietnam. This is the first place in which I would like to come back when I feel tired and refresh my mind. There are three-part of my country North, Middle and South. This is the reason to explain why the sound of language and the food are different between the region. All of these things are creating interesting for my peaceful country. Moreover,  Vietnam has 54 ethnic groups. The most populated group is the Kinh people. They mainly inhabit the Red River delta with the famous Red River civilization. Other ethnics groups are scattered over mountain areas. Each group has its own beliefs, cuisine and special. The culture of Cham people is one of the earliest cultures in Vietnamese history. Despite the difference in culture, the ethnics group has established and developed strong solidarity. If you like to discover a new thing, you should come to my country. It is cheap to travel here and enjoy a lot of food such as Pho, Vietnamese crepe cake ( Banh xeo),... Besides that, you can take a trip to learn about Vietnam history through some interesting places like Hoi An ancient town, Ba Na hill, Phong Nha Cave and Ha Long Bay.

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