Tan Mai: Christmas country

Streets and alleys are sparkling with lights. At night, the parish hamlet of Tan Mai suddenly brightens to make up a sparkling, illusory, and twinkling huge cobweb at night.

Tan Mai in Dong Nai Province’s Bien Hoa City is considered the Kingdom of Christmas because it lures the most parishioners from churches than any other localities in Vietnam. It also holds Christmas to be more special than all of the others. The winter covers Dong Nai when Tan Mai parish hamlet prepares to welcome their Christmas holidays. The first sign is the cold temperature with the persistent wind, warn sun, and of course Christmas music played at many houses.

Thrill of Christmas season

For two weeks before Christmas Eve, December 24, the Tan Mai people gather along the National Highways 1A, Ho Nai Ward and National Highways 15 to hurriedly prepare the decorations of their lamps and stone caves. All activity stops, everyone from the elderly to the children are eager to decorate the streets and districts to welcome in this special festival.

No distance, no past resentments, just people getting together to share goodwill. They work together with cheerful smiles which make the winter unusually. Streets and alleys are sparkling with lights. At night, the parish hamlet of Tan Mai suddenly brightens to make up a sparkling, illusory, and twinkling huge cobweb at night.

Stone cave decoration in front of the houses at the parish hamlets of Tan Mai in Bien Hoa makes everything more beautiful. The stone cave is built to be very imposing and brilliant at the church and along the big streets, where a lot of people pass by. They come to contemplate the stone cave and listen to the story of how Jesus was born in Bethlehem and gaze in wonder at the Holy star. The five-winged star is designed to be very large and is located at the most solemn place. This man made stone cave shows not only faith to God but also refined talent and the beauty of daily lifestyle. The feeling of Christmas at Tan Mai parish hamlets is not too noisy or animated, but it’s very warm and friendly. Strangers can shake hands and talk together. Due to its simplicity, visitors from other localities have started to come and have made it more crowded every year.

Sleep deeply at Christmas Eve Festival

The most imposing is the atmosphere to welcome Christmas at churches. Dozens of churches in Ho Nai sparkle with lights. You will be impressed as you stray into a miniature world of European and American countries when visiting there. On Christmas Eve, it is different from the usually animated atmosphere in Saigon compared to the Tan Mai parish hamlet. After end-mass all people return to their houses, gathering with their families and friends for a party called Réveillon-midnight festival to celebrate Jesus being born. With the warm and friendly atmosphere, the Christmas songs are resounded boisterously. People drink some wine to get warm and drunk with joy and happiness.

December 25 is the important festival. Nobody conducts business or works very hard on this day. The crowded Saturday market located at the heart of the parish is quiet and still. Every house keeps still and sleeps deeply after a happy night. Only high pine trees, stone caves, and twinkling lamp-lights welcome a peaceful morning. It seems like everything stops after a sublimating night to take the remaining things of Christmas Eve. On the next night and the following days every thing is jubilant and bright because lamps are always lit during December until Lunar New Year.

(Source: SGT)