Viet-Country

Saigon (MF) January I971. It is crisp this morning, the first of the New Year. I have already started an aloe wood fire to chase away the wicked atmosphere of yesteryear and have washed my hands in perfumed water. Now it is time for the "first writing of this new year", a most important task. Yes, all is in readiness; the scarlet red Hong Dieu paper for cheerfulness and luck, a new brush pen of sable for cleanliness...

There is a popular belief in Vietnam that Tao Quan, the Three Kitchen Gods, are present in the kitchen of every home. These gods observe everything that takes place there. At the end of the lunar year, on the twenty-third day of the twelfth month, they depart to make their report to Ngoc Hoang, the Jade Emperor, supreme divinity of the Taoist Heaven. On that day Tao Quan are offered the best of food and spices and are...

Since war's end, Vietnamese emigres have spread across U.S. HANOI -- They all have unfinished business. So they cram together in a sweltering, incense-fogged room on the outskirts of Hanoi, waiting for answers. From the dead. There's the elderly woman, cradling a sack of ripe persimmons, who wants to ask her brother where his remains are because he has been missing in action for 52 years. There's the young woman,...

Saigon (MF): A revived interest in the national Vietnamese dress for men was demonstrated at an Lions International Club meeting held in Tokyo in 1969. The assembled Lions, along with thousands of Japanese observers on the streets and perhaps millions more at their television sets, were treated to a look at the Vietnamese national dress worn by the Vietnamese Lion delegates. This was the first time Vietnamese men have...

In a popular Vietnamese folk song expressing the ten most striking features of a gracious and beautiful woman, long jet black hair is cited as being of first importance: "You are first loved for your hair which is tied in a cock's tail shape." There is good reason to place a Vietnamese woman's hair in first place. Long and flowing, smooth and very fine, it makes any woman, even one otherwise not attractive, appear feminine...

Saigon--What is the best way to keep a child healthy? An old Vietnamese grandfather believes the charm of a certain necklace wards off evil spirits and he may give it to his grandson to protect the boy. An employee fails to show up for work on the third day of the lunar month because he believes that particular date brings him bad luck. A student tries to borrow money to buy lottery tickets because he dreamed of fire...

Saigon (MF)--The Vietnamese attach great importance to two traditional family obligations to care for their parents in their old age and to mourn them in death. These duties are felt so strongly, they are considered sacred. The traditional time of mourning for parents is three years. Mourning begins even before death is imminent. When death is about to take place, the entire family assembles around the dying relative....

Although the government in Vietnam intends to develop an identifiable Vietnamese Medical Science, traditional medicine has existed for generations. There are three medical traditions which have coexisted in Vietnam prior to the impact of Western Medicine: these are Thuoc Bac (Northern Medicine), Thuoc Nam (Southern Medicine), and Thuoc Tay (Western Medicine). With Thuoc Bac or Northern Medicine only those Vietnamese...