Downtown city streets are a riot of colour and light as the Tet (Lunar New Year) festive mood deepens, heralding the coming of spring to Vietnam.

Nguyen Hue city flower street, HCM City.

As usual, the axis of cultural events for HCM City residents and tourists is the Nguyen Hue Flower Street, which puts on beautiful countryside scenes of rice fields and bamboo groves imitating rural landscapes.

Several kinds of flowers from Da Lat, terracotta images of a national icon – the buffalo boy – and numerous other artifacts, as well as music and sound effects designed to match with theme of each area make a walk down the street from January 23 to January 28 a special experience.

On the final day of the festival, no vehicles will be allowed from Nguyen Hue Flower Street to Le Loi Street, which will host flamenco dances and traditional music bands.

Tao Dan Flower Festival

In just two days, more than 20,000 visitors have thronged the 29th Spring Flower Festival at the Tao Dan Cultural Park with more than 5,000 varieties of trees, bonsai, flowers, ornamental fish, and rock gardens.

It also has collections of coral and more than 100 varieties of bamboo.

Held every year during Tet, it has some intriguing, new kinds of flowers this year, including slipper orchids.

Due to unseasonable weather this year, ochre flowers are in short supply, but cherry blossoms and temperate flowers are much more beautiful than in past years. Among the highlights are two cherry blossom trees aged 100 years.

Hue celebration

Not being bustling like in HCM City, new year in Hue and Hoi An will be organised in a unruffled way that raise an atmosphere of ancient Tet.

For the first time, the Hue Centre for Relics Preservation open Dai Noi (Great Internal Hall) and An Dinh Palace with free of charge on the first three days of new year.

Apart from activities including spring flower festival, there are traditional games during the holidays such as human chess, bai choi (card game in huts).

A huge lantern festival will be organised at the Cau Pagoda and along banks of the Hoai River.

(Source: VNS)