Walking through Ho Chi Minh City during Vietnamese Lunar New Year (Tet) 2026! A local experience

Xin chào! We're Yuki, a Japanese husband, and Ngoc, his Vietnamese wife, living in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. On this blog, we share information about life and relocation in Vietnam, as well as travel information from all over the country. If you find an article that interests you, please give us a follow first ♪ It's been a while since our last update, m(__)m From February 14th to 22nd, Vietnam celebrated the Lunar New Year period known as 'Tet'. Many of you probably already know this, but Japan is likely the only place that celebrates New Year on January 1st according to the new (solar) calendar. Korea, China, Malaysia — pretty much all of Asia celebrates it according to the lunar calendar. Also, right before the Lunar New Year holidays, I went to Da Lat again, which I love (haha). With all that going on, it's been quite a while since my last update, but starting this week I'm getting back into full swing. I appreciate your continued support again this year ♪      For the Vietnamese Lunar New Year (Tet), I went back to my hometown in the countryside

For the New Year, I went back to my hometown. My family's house is in a small rural town about an hour by motorbike from Ho Chi Minh City. I forgot to take a photo, but the whole area is covered in rice paddy scenery (haha). At home, my mother sells goods at the market and my father raises chickens and ducks — it's just such a picture-perfect Vietnamese family! ☆ Vietnam also has New Year dishes similar to Japan's osechi. That's what's shown in the photo. Well, many of these are dishes we eat regularly too, but once they all appear on the table together, I really feel like, "ah, Tet has come again this year" (^^♪ For Lunar New Year, I walked along Flower Street in Ho Chi Minh City ♪

The Flower Road festival is held every year in major cities like Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Da Nang. This year I joined from the evening. As always, it was incredibly crowded. Vietnam's leading companies set up booths and displayed monuments made of flowers.

This is clay craft. It's the kind of thing kids want, isn't it~ I used to buy this every year too, but this year it was around 300 yen, which felt a bit pricey, so I passed on it (-_-;) For some reason, Book Street has become a Lunar New Year tradition.

数年前からベトナム旧正月のフラワーロードの傍で決まって開催されるようになった「ブックストリート」。今年も実施されていました。ベトナムだけでなく世界各国の漫画や小説、ビジネス書を売っています。   ちなみに主催はベトナム最大手の書店「FAHASA（ファハサ）」。日本の紀伊国屋書店とも提携していて、グエンフエ通り本店では数多くの日本語の本を扱っているので、ホーチミン在住者御用達の本屋となります。

This year, Flower Road was held on Nguyen Hue Street, and Book Street was set up on Le Loi Street, which runs from Nguyen Hue all the way to Ben Thanh Market. And here's a look around Ben Thanh Market. As expected, it's decorated with colorful flowers and looks so festive! In Japan, New Year's is generally spent in a solemn, quiet way, but as you can see, Vietnam really stands out for its flashiness and vibrancy. A classic spot for Lunar New Year — for your first shrine visit (hatsumode) in Ho Chi Minh City, head to Vinh Nghiem Pagoda.

Vietnamese people also have the concept of a first shrine visit of the New Year. "Vinh Nghiem Pagoda," which is even featured in guidebooks like Rurubu, is one of the most prestigious temples in Ho Chi Minh City, so it becomes crowded with many visitors during the Lunar New Year period.

This is the bell tower located beside the main hall. Ordinary visitors are also allowed to ring the bell. By the way, it seems this bell tower was donated by a temple in Japan.

As you can see, inside the main hall, a monk was reading sutras into a microphone, and behind him a large crowd of Vietnamese people sat listening to the sutras. But I suppose it's a sign of the times — many of them were looking down, playing games on their phones (lol). To wrap up and preview next time... Lunar New Year is definitely fun, but I wonder how it is for travelers?   During the Lunar New Year period, many of the spas and souvenir shops that travelers usually visit are closed, and restaurants raise their prices by about 20 to 50 percent for the holiday season. Some travel agencies even seem to discourage traveling to Vietnam during the Lunar New Year, so I can't help but wonder whether travelers actually still enjoy themselves during that time. If you have experience traveling to Vietnam during the Lunar New Year period, please do let us know in the comments! ♪   Next time... our Da Lat trip begins! As I mentioned at the beginning, before Lunar New Year started, our family went on a Da Lat trip for a few days. Starting next time, over several posts I'll be sharing what our Da Lat trip was actually like on the ground ♪ Even if you're thinking "where even is Da Lat?", please do take a look ♪ Hẹn gặp lại! ※This means "See you again!" in Vietnamese (^^)/