On Jan. 16, the Taiwan Tourism Bureau’s office in Ho Chi Minh City teamed up with some Vietnamese business operators to host a cultural exchange on the theme of Vietnamese and Taiwanese Lunar New Year customs. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult for people to travel back and forth between Vietnam and Taiwan, so the day’s activities attracted owners and managers of many Taiwanese businesses operating in Vietnam to go and get an early taste of the Lunar New Year.
Vietnamese and Taiwanese alike worship their ancestors and sit down for New Year’s Eve meals on Lunar New Year’s Eve, but some of the details are a little different. For example, when celebrating the New Year, Vietnamese people of all ages eat traditional square leaf-wrapped rice dumplings whose stuffing mainly consists of glutinous rice, pork and mung beans. Once prepared, the dumplings are boiled for more than 10 hours.
When worshiping their ancestors at Lunar New Year, Vietnamese people traditionally display some peach blossoms and prepare a five-fruit tray symbolizing yin and yang and the five elements. They also choose 12 kinds of dried and candied fruit, representing the months of the year, and place them in a candy bowl. The variously flavored dried and candied fruits represent the sour, sweet, bitter and spicy flavors of human life. The Vietnamese present these things along with the already-cooked square dumplings as offerings to their ancestors while praying for everything to go smoothly in the coming year.
Photo: CNA 照片：中央社
Chou Hsin-yi, director of the Tourism Bureau’s Ho Chi Minh City office, observed that Vietnam and Taiwan have many things in common culturally, and they both celebrate the lunar calendar New Year, which is also known as Spring Festival. In the past, Spring Festival was one of the busiest times for Vietnamese travelers to visit Taiwan, and that is why the bureau chose this moment to invite Vietnamese businesspeople to demonstrate the differences and similarities between Lunar New Year customs in the two countries.
The pandemic has led to general tourist traffic between Vietnam and Taiwan being cut off. To make sure that Vietnamese travelers would not forget about Taiwan during this time of sickness, Chou gave an introduction to the three major tourist events connected with Spring Festival and Lantern Festival in Taiwan, namely the Taiwan Lantern Festival, the Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival and the Pingsi Sky Lantern Festival. Chou hopes that the pandemic will be over before too long and the travel business would be restored to its former prosperity.
Taiwan’s representative in Vietnam Richard Shih also spoke at the event. He said that there were more than 1.3 million trips between Vietnam and Taiwan in 2019, and more than a million Taiwanese are currently waiting to visit Vietnam. Shih said he hopes that traffic, travel and tourism between Vietnam and Taiwan will soon recover. He said that when flights are officially resumed, annual trips between the two countries are sure to head for the 2 million mark.
Photo: CNA 照片：中央社
(Translated by Julian Clegg, Taipei Times)
台灣觀光局駐胡志明市辦事處一月十六日和越南業者共同舉辦越台年俗文化交流。受武漢肺炎（新冠病毒，COVID-19）疫情衝擊，越台旅客往來不易，這次活動因而吸引許多在越台商、幹部前來提早感受年味。
越南與台灣兩地民眾除夕都會祭祖、吃年夜飯，但細節表現略有不同。例如越南人過年時不分老少會吃傳統方形粽，內餡主要有糯米、豬肉、綠豆，之後再用水煮十小時以上。
越南人過年祭祖時按傳統會擺上桃花，並準備象徵陰陽五行的五果盆，再挑出十二種代表各月分的乾果、蜜餞放在糖果盤裡，滋味不一的乾果與蜜餞寓意生活中的酸甜苦辣，並連同煮好的方形粽一起供奉祖先，祈求新年萬事亨通。
台灣佛教慈濟慈善事業基金會河內工作人員則準備分別象徵好彩頭、步步高升的蘿蔔糕、年糕讓民眾品嘗，還提供食材讓大家體驗包餃子的台灣年俗，並展示台商所寫的春聯，渾厚大氣的正體字書法驚艷在場越南民眾。
觀光局駐胡志明市辦事處主任周欣毅觀察，越台在文化上有許多類似的地方，一樣都過農曆年。以往春節是越南旅客赴台旺季之一，選這個時間點邀請越南業者介紹兩地年俗的異同。
受疫情影響，越台一般觀光往來中斷，為讓越南旅客在疫情期間也不忘記台灣，周欣毅特別介紹台灣燈會、鹽水蜂炮、平溪天燈這三大台灣春節、元宵觀光盛事，盼疫情早日結束，重拾往日旅遊榮景。
台灣駐越南代表石瑞琦致詞時表示，二○一九年越台往來人次超過一百三十萬；現在已有一百萬人次的台灣旅客等著來越南，期盼越台航空交通、旅遊、觀光趕快恢復，正式復航後，每年兩邊旅客往來人次一定會上看二百萬。
（中央社）
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