Bustling atmosphere descends on Xuan Quan flower village as Tet approaches

B: In 2023, VOVWorld received more than 20,000 letters, emails, and phone calls from listeners around the world. More than half of them were sent to us here in the English Section.

A: Once again, we’d like to thank you all for tuning in to VOV and sending us your reception reports and comments on our broadcasts. Your feedback is a source of great encouragement to us in fulfilling our mission to deliver news and stories from Vietnam to the world, connect Vietnam with friends around the world, and make Vietnam better known internationally.

B: Delivering news and stories on shortwave and on our new digital platform has brought Vietnam and the Voice of Vietnam closer to the international community. In their correspondence, listeners around the world have shared their love for Vietnam, their support for Vietnam, and their understanding of Vietnam’s land and people, and have showered VOV’s staff with much-appreciated praise and encouragement.

A: On this, the very last Letter Box of 2023, we once again would like to express our sincere thanks to all of you and our hope that we will continue to receive your support in 2024. We wish you all a New Year of peace, happiness, success, and good fortune.

B: This week VOVWorld continued to receive Seasons Greetings from listeners around the world.

A: On the beautiful Christmas card he sent Alan Roe of the UK wrote: ‘With my very best wishes for the New Year and thank you for continuing to broadcast your entertaining and informative programs on shortwave.”

B: Rabi Sankar Bosu of India, one of our regular listeners, wrote: “Happy Christmas and a prosperous & peaceful 2024! 2023 is coming to a close and I’m wishing all of you at VOVWORLD English Service happiness and joy of Christmas and a prosperous and peaceful 2024!”

A: Mr. Bosu told us about an ancient church in India: “Today Christmas has become a universal festival. Last December 16, I went to Bandel City in our Hooghly district to buy some Christmas gifts for poor students. I took a few photos of the historic and holy Basilica of the Holy Rosary, popularly known as Bandel Church. The church was built in 1599 and declared a basilica by John Paul II on November 24, 1988. It’s one of the oldest Christian churches in West Bengal. Every stone is a page of history! It stands as a memorial to the Portuguese settlement in West Bengal. At Christmas the church is beautifully decorated and really offers a visual treat.”

B: In his New Year greeting to VOV, Bidhan Chandra Sanyal shared a story about the history of a New Year festival that dates back thousands of years. He wrote: “Wishing everyone a Happy New Year. May the coming New Year days bring prosperity.  May the life of every people of every country be filled with happiness and prosperity in the new year.  And my very personal wish that Voice of Vietnam will be the ambassador of world culture.  Let the Voice of Vietnam become popular with everyone.”

A: Those are just a few of the many New Year wishes we’ve received from listeners around the world. We sincerely thank you all for those wishes. We wish you all a very Happy New Year, too!

B: Next we’d like to welcome Joe Bauer of the US to VOV. In his reception report on listening to VOV December 20th from 21h30 to 21h59, he rated SINPO 45444 with good strength, no interference, and slight fading. He wrote: “I had the pleasure of receiving your English broadcast on 11885 kHz. I used an SDR located in France to monitor your transmission.  I really enjoyed hearing how Christmas is celebrated in Vietnam. It was interesting to hear how much like the western world the Vietnamese people celebrate Christmas. I look forward to hearing your future broadcasts, especially the cultural segments.”

A:  Mr. Bauer, thank you for tuning in to VOV. We hope to continue to receive feedback from you.

B: Like Bauer and many other VOV listeners, Heng Vutthy of Cambodia says he’s interested in Vietnamese culture, traditions, and customs. This week he asked about the Vietnamese tradition of ancestor worship.

Altar of a family on Tet holiday (Photo: VietnamPlus)

A: Ancestor worship is a ritual practice of paying tribute to deceased family members to remind people of their roots. During the Lunar New Year festival, Vietnamese at home and abroad cook traditional dishes and place them on their family altar to honor their ancestors.

B: The practice reflects the influence of patriarchy and Confucianism in Vietnamese culture. Since the long Chinese occupation of Vietnam, filial piety, the most fundamental value of Confucianism, has been very important to Vietnamese families.

A: Children are obliged to respect their parents in life and to remember them after they die. Ancestor worship is thus an expression of filial piety toward deceased parents and ancestors.

B: Most Vietnamese families have an ancestral altar occupying a prominent place in their house. The ancestral altar is set with ancestral tablets and pictures, with an incense urn in the center symbolizing the stars. The urn usually contains a circular incense stick that represents the universe. A candle on the left side of the altar represents the sun and a candle on the right side represents the moon.

A tray of fruit is an indispensable item placed in the center of the altar of every family during Tet (Photo: VietnamPlus)

A: On special occasions, like an ancestor’s death anniversary or the Lunar New Year, special rites are performed to communicate with the dead. The rites consist of making offerings of fruits, other foods, and wine, lighting candles, burning incense, and praying in front of the altar.

B: Tet, the Lunar New Year, is the most important festival of the year for Vietnamese people and a time of family reunion. People invite the souls of their ancestors to join the family’s Tet celebration.

A: A tray of fruit is an indispensable item, placed in the center of the altar of every family during Tet. Northerners prefer bananas, apples, oranges, pomelos, peaches, papayas, and chilies to place on the altar. In the south, different fruits are preferred.

B: The ancestral altar occupies a prominent place in every Vietnamese home, no matter whether the family is rich or poor. It is a manifestation of the country’s culture that shows equal respect for the past, the present, and the future.

A: Ashik Eqbal Tokon told us that he has received our new QSL card: “I have recently received a QSL from VOV and I would like to express my gratitude for this thoughtful gesture. As a member of the VOV Spectators' Association of Bangladesh, I have taken the initiative to share this information with several DX groups, and I believe that this will lead to an influx of reception reports for the VOV English Section, especially from India.”

A: “Furthermore, I would like to convey my warmest Christmas greetings and best wishes for the upcoming New Year 2024 to the entire team at Voice of Vietnam. May the holiday season bring joy and prosperity to all of you.”

B: Malik Allah Bachaya of Pakistan wrote: “I listen to you regularly. All the programs are very informative and interesting to me and my club members. Your programs are a source of entertainment and joy. Your programs inform me about current affairs and much more.

B: Reginaldo Anunciacao of Brazil wrote: “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2024. I listen to you regularly. Radio the Voice of Vietnam and your English program provide us news and information about Vietnam. I like your wonderful traditional music.”

A: We’d like to acknowledge reception reports and feedback from Rafaél Tuazon of the Philippines, Fumito Hokamura and Noboru Hasegawa of Japan, and many others who listened to VOV broadcasts on shortwave or on the internet. Thank you all for your interest in VOV, for sharing your love of our country, and for sending us your feedback. We hope to see you soon in Vietnam.

A: We welcome your feedback at: English Service, VOVWorld, the Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu street, Hanoi, Vietnam. Or you can email us at: englishsection@vov.vn. You’re invited to visit us online at vovworld.vn, where you can hear both live and recorded programs.

B: Check out our VOV Media App, available on both the IOS and Android platform, to hear our broadcasts. We look forward to your feedback on the mobile version of vovworld.vn. Once again, thank you all for listening. Goodbye!