HCMC to close two central streets on Jan. 26 for Tet Offensive ceremony
Ho Chi Minh City has announced it will be closing two downtown streets for several hours on January 26 for one of the biggest ceremonies of the year.
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The section of Le Duan Street between Nam Ky Khoi Nghia and Pasteur in front of the Independence Palace will be closed to traffic from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m., the city’s transport department said.
Traffic will also be blocked from Nguyen Du Street between Nguyen Trung Truc and Thu Khoa Huan beside the palace from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. for commemorations of the Tet Offensive, the department said.
Activities will include the opening of a Lunar New Year exhibition, a ceremony to mark the 88th anniversary of Vietnam’s Communist Party, and another ceremony to remember the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive.
The Tet Offensive was one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War, launched during the Lunar New Year in 1968 by North Vietnamese forces against the US-backed Saigon regime. Tens of thousands of casualties were reported on both sides.
This year, the country’s largest holiday will start on February 16, and the government has approved a one-week break between February 14-20.
Road construction will be suspended during the festival and the week before, the transport department said.
