(VOVworld) When spring comes, Vietnamese people usually go on a pilgrimage at the beginning of the Lunar New Year. They go to the pagodas to pray for safety, health, good luck, prosperity and happiness during the year. Going to pagoda has become an inevitable custom of almost every Vietnamese during the first days of the new year.

It has become a tradition that every year, ahortly before Tet or the lunar New Year Festival begins, the C-region Naval Command visits people and soldiers stationed in Con Co island in the central province of Quang Tri. VOV reporter from Con Co noted some major changes on the island this year.

A warm Tet Holiday for ethnic people in Tung Qua Lin Commune, Lai Chau province

There is a stamp market in Hanoi, which opens at 9am every Sunday in front of house No 160, Trieu Viet Vuong Street. Stamp lovers come there not only for “trading’ but also for their hobbies.

Sipping a cup of coffee every morning and observing the stream of people passing by has long been a pleasurable pastime for many Hanoians. As time goes by, the pastime becomes a lifestyle called the coffee culture.

The Christmas atmosphere is pervading every street in HCM City . Buildings, trading centers and shops are colorfully decorated with Christmas trees and Santas riding reindeer carriages.

Festive season atmosphere has been created in Hong Giang commune, Dong Hung district of Thai Binh province with local people decorating pathways with colored lights, Christmas trees, caves and Jesus Christ.

A poetry collection featuring famous Austrian authors has been made available to the Vietnamese public.

Chairman of the Thang Long-Hanoi Pottery and Antique Researchers and Collectors, Dao Phan Long, once said: “The country’s artifacts are sacred so we have to learn to treat them in a proper way”. With that aim, the association’s members have organized many private exhibitions of artifacts to help educate public about history and the quintessence of their predecessors.

Museums today are big business around the globe. But in Vietnam, except for very few museums like the Ho Chi Minh Museum or the Museum of Ethnology, most museums fall far short of public expectations.