At An Dong Market on the weekend before the holiday, people are thronging the aisles. Sunday is usually a quiet day at this huge, four-story shopping centre, but today there are lines at almost every stall. From coffee beans to candies to dried shrimp, supplies are flying out of the building and into the shopping bags of people preparing for the coming festivities.

In District 1, the most happening places are the flower markets. In a city where parks and green spaces are at a minimum, the Lunar New Year is a time to enjoy natural beauty. Nguyen Hue boulevard , the traditional location of the biggest flower show, is already full of yellow, red, and pink petals. Even driving past, in the middle of pack of motorbikes, the perfume of flowers can be scented.

At the exposition on

Nguyen Thi Minh Khai road

 in District 1, night has turned the park into a carnival. Children are everywhere. Smiling families pose for pictures in front of miniature bonsai trees, multi-coloured orchids, and gigantic pigs made out of daisies. An especially fat-cheeked baby, carried in a front sling by his proud mother, condescends to have his photo taken with enamoured strangers. Though certain spots (the bubbling fountain and the pink trees, symbol of Tet, which have been brought from the north) are the most coveted for photo-taking, on this night there is no pushing or shoving. Relaxation in anticipation of a few days off work has already set in, and amateur photographers wait good-naturedly for those in front to take their pictures, inspect them on the digital screens of their cameras, and take them again.

The “produce sculpture” section is perhaps the most odd and attention-grabbing. Participants have constructed roaring dragons from an assortment of fruits and vegetables: chilli peppers for flames, green beans for whiskers, even cloves of garlic for teeth. One particularly inventive person has inserted a mechanism inside his dragon, and the mouth open and closes automatically all night long.

As a counterpart to the plant life, huge lines of aquariums have been set up, and are now home to schools of colourful fish, ranging from about size of a VND5,000 coin to large enough to feed a family of ten. It’s the almost deformed-looking fish that are the big draw this year, the ones with large bumps on their heads. They’ve replaced last year’s favourite, the brightly coloured flatfish, which are now morosely drifting in their tanks. A solitary spotted flatfish, whose tank has been demoted to the very end of the row, looks patently depressed.

To some, the fish are more fascinating than the flowers, or even the dragon dance taking place at the other end of the park. The dancers, jumping from pillar to pillar and giving extraordinary life to the lime-green costume, should be satisfied with their night’s work, however, as many people have fed the dragon money to bring them luck in the New Year. Nearby, different kinds of blessings are being bestowed. The brightly painted pagoda is crowded, and the smell of incense drifts over.

The park is still bustling, even after 10:30. The weather is cooler now, but friends continue to sit in the tea pavilion, sipping tiny cups of lotus and jasmine tea on chairs low to the ground. Next door, the calligraphers are busy engraving blank scrolls with personal messages, which the buyers will give to their friends and family. Present buying is another popular activity at the flower show, and there are plenty of stalls set up to accommodate customers. From bags of tea to plastic necklaces to butterfly balloons to ceramic statues dotted with tiny seashells, gifts are plentiful and not many leave empty-handed.

The relaxed, joyful atmosphere of Ho Chi Minh City in the days before Tet is worth waiting an entire year for. To witness the cheerful bustle of the city’s citizens, the flower show is the best place, displaying as it does both the beauty of the holiday and its adornments and the warmest faces of its people. The flowers won’t last more than a few days, but the New Year is just beginning, and there’s no better way to welcome it.

 

Nell Wulfhart