TET in the countryside

Ah I am on a sleeper bus tonight to area west of da lat. I tell my gf I might fall in love with the fresh air, looking forward to break from heat of HCMC. Good reminder about xi Li for neighbourhood kids. I have a few more envelopes so I think I will be ok. Already provided xi Li to our hosts where we are going , here in HCMC at first day of tet.

Deepsix6 - That is very well-written kind sir. You captured the spirit of Tet and shared it with us.
Thank you.

Greetings Jim,

Thank you for your kind words!

More you know, More you hate. Just like any other countries, such as your own^^

My experiences in the neighboring Ben Tre Province is that the first week of so is exceptionally relaxing but that things tend to get boring by the second week.

It's unfortunate that you are unable to appreciate the existential drama of the cock fight.  Do you eat chicken meat?

THIGV,

Cock fighting is fine if that what people like, my personal view is that I don't like to see children watching the spectacle, but this is Vietnam and I respect that. And to answer your question if I eat chicken, absolutely!

I'm glad it's over now.

As with all celebrations and parties it is always very exhausting (especially if you have a 4 month old baby).

On 2 days we visited about 10 relatives in different places.

Everywhere it is very noisy (because everyone talks at the same time and wants to drown out the others), smokes, too much beer and too much food.

AND the traditional sofas are always made of hardwood, Ouch! 

One thing about children in Vietnam is that, at least in rural areas, they fully understand that chicken does not come from the supermarket.

This week there was terrible screams in the neighbourhood of our high-rise apartment.

I asked my wife and she said that a chicken was being slaughtered in a neighboring apartment. 

Deepsix6 wrote:

however, today my utopia was shattered when I woke up to find a large group of Vietnamese men on the empty plot of land next to my home staging a 'Cock Fight' which is illegal in Vietnam..this is a regular occurrence in the countryside but I was not expecting it here, I was told by my family not to intervene but I am not a fan of this type of bloodsport and was pretty pissed off to see so many young children watching this spectacle...

chúc mừng năm mới

Cockfight is not illegal, but cockfight for money is.  Neither the gamecocks nor the fight matter, what matter is the gambling without permission.

I'm not a proponent of cockfight, but, in the same vein as THIGV's comment, I watched 5 chicken being slaughtered last week for a Tet meal, and not just that, I was the receiver of a pot of chicken curry, the absolute best curry I've ever eaten in my entire life. 

As for children and blood sports, I doubt two bloody chicken would've affected the young YouTube watchers who are mesmerized by the many bloody ways UFC fighters in a cage (branded many years ago as 'human cockfighting' by John McCain) doling out to one another.  There are more bloodsports on their phones or tablets than in the real world in which they live.  Not that two wrongs make a right, but there are dozens of wrong things being thrown at the children daily, I trust that with the help of their parents, they wouldn't be desensitized to violence.

BTW, children in the countryside don't just watch the cockfight, they also help their mothers cutting off a chicken's neck, and some of them even swing the knife.  I knew I did that once or twice in my youth and I didn't even live in the countryside.

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới to you and your loved ones.

If you complain Tet, I wonder what you will have to say about funneral in country side. My funeral experience in summer was OMG, very very hard.  Tet is nothing. I just stop going after attending fews years. Funeral,,, you can not refuse.

I love cockfighting in Asia. It's part of the culture. We can't force our western beliefs on other cultures. They don't do that to our countries. And no child is bothered by it. That is over-dramatized western thought.

By my observations you are correct.....

In, USA, Dog fight is common underground