What's happening in December in Vietnam? (Travel Tips and more)

Lesson Transcript

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Hello everyone, it's Ling.

Welcome back to the series of Months in Vietnam

and you're watching vietnamespod101.com

the funniest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Vietnamese.

So today is going to be December

and I'm going to introduce to you some food,

some common things about December,

some holidays in both English calendar and lunar calendars.

And since this is the end of the year,

there's going to be a lot of things to talk about.

So let's get started.

All right, so this is exactly winter in Hanoi

and it's super, super cold.

And trust me, when I say it's cold,

that means even foreigners can't handle that.

Because the humidity in Hanoi is pretty high.

I mean, in the north in general is very high in Vietnam.

It makes the cold even sharper and it's just freaking freezing.

Let's talk a little bit about the weather first.

That means the weather in December is super cold in the north

and super hot in the south.

That means the average temperature in the north in December

is around 15 to 20 degrees Celsius.

Even though it's only 15 to 20, it's going to be freezing.

Even though we don't have snow here.

If you go to Sapa, you can see the snow maybe.

Also, in the south of Vietnam, basically it's like Saigon,

for example, the average temperature in the south is from 30 to 35 degrees.

That means it's really, really hot and sunny.

Now let's talk about some food in December.

Món ăn vào tháng 12.

Since it's winter, I highly recommend you to try hot pot in Hanoi, which is lẩu.

Lẩu là một món ăn vô cùng nổi tiếng vào mùa đông ở Hà Nội.

That means hot pot is a very, very popular dish in Hà Nội in winter.

Lẩu là một món ăn vô cùng nổi tiếng.

So we have lẩu bò, lẩu riêu cua, lẩu thái, lẩu ếch, lẩu thập cẩm.

Yeah, I think these are the most common hot pots in Hanoi.

In December, we also have a kind of dessert, which is bánh chôi tàu.

This is a very common and popular snack of Vietnamese people, especially in winter,

because it's very sweet and hot and it will warm your body quickly.

This is like Chinese rice floating cake, because I think it's originally from China.

Bánh chôi tàu. We also have the Vietnamese bánh chôi, which is the rice floating cake.

In summer, we have ngày bánh chôi bánh chay of Vietnam.

On next one, one of the very popular dishes in Hanoi, which is bò nướng chào.

It's like pan-fried beef. Bò nướng chào is super popular nowadays.

Basically, we need a pan, of course. Some ingredients are bò, of course, beef.

We also have nầm. Nầm is like the breast of the pig.

What else? We have lòng. Lòng is like the organs of the pig.

Also, we have pork. So bò, nầm, lòng, thịt ba chỉ.

Also, there are some side dishes. For example, salad.

Salad, right? Khoai usually can be sweet potato.

What else? Cà chua, tomato, hành, hành tây, onion.

And also, there will be sốt mê, sốt mê tamarind sauce.

Some shops will have phô mai, cheese, sốt tiêu, pepper sauce.

So usually, we'll put all the ingredients on the pan and we just eat

in that cold weather and it's super, super pleasant.

Next one, another very popular hot pot, but it's not in Hà Nội,

but it is in the north of Vietnam, which is thắng cố.

It's like a kind of horse hot pot and it contains like the horse meat and also the horse organs.

This is very popular in Sà Pa as well and in Sài Gòn.

I've never tried it because I heard that it smells really strong,

but I will try one day for sure.

Now let's talk about some holidays in December.

Let's talk about the regular calendar first.

One of the biggest holidays of Vietnamese people.

It wasn't really originally from Vietnam, but nowadays it has become super popular

because young people really enjoy it, which is Noen.

Or in Vietnamese, we say Giáng sinh.

Giáng sinh.

That means Christmas is one of the major holidays imported from Western countries in Vietnam.

Even though a majority of Vietnamese people are Buddhists, when it comes to Christmas,

the whole ambience around us is surrounded by Christmas theme.

This is like a very big party in Vietnam,

and if you go out on Christmas, it's gonna be fully packed everywhere.

Now let's talk about the December lunar calendar.

This is very interesting because this is the end of the year,

so usually we have a lot of big holidays in December.

First, let's talk about dùm tháng cháp.

The full moon day of December lunar calendar,

and this is one of the biggest full moon days of Vietnamese people.

On this day, we will have a big party, a big meal.

Everybody in the family will gather together.

So on this day, we'll pray for all the happenings throughout the year,

and also we'll prepare for a new year coming up.

So in sentence, you can say

That means December full moon day is the last full moon day of the year,

and it's very meaningful to Vietnamese people.

Next one is

takes place on 23rd December, lunar calendar, okay?

People think that Ông Công and Ông Tảo, Mr. Công and Mr. Tảo,

will report all the things happened throughout the year to Ngọc Hoàng.

I don't know what this is in English.

This is a very important religious tradition of Vietnamese people.

This event closes the year, and it's gonna be like the beginning of the new year.

On this day, we will prepare a very big meal with a lot of good food, of course,

and we will buy a fish.

After that, we release the fish so that Ông Công and Ông Tảo can ride the fish to the heaven.

In sentence, we can say

So that means on 23rd December,

will fly a carp to the sky to report all the things happening around the year to the Jade Emperor.

Next one, let's talk about

Tất niên is also an event that takes place on the last day of lunar year.

On this day, we will have a party together.

This is a very important day of Vietnamese people because we're going to welcome the new year.

So everybody will go back to their family.

It's as important as Christmas in your country.

Tất niên is indispensable function in Vietnamese people's life.

That means Tất niên is usually organized on the last day of the year

to welcome a new year.

All right, so that's it for December and it's going to be New Year soon.

So I'll see you in January video.

Thank you very much for watching this video.

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