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HCMC flower and book festivals to welcome Tet
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Two big flower and book festivals will take place in Ho Chi Minh City next week to welcome the coming lunar new year, which falls on January 23.

Artisans around Ho Chi Minh City are sprinting to finish the decorations for the annual Nguyen Hue Flower Street Festival, which will be open from January 20-26 in District 1 to celebrate the coming Tet holiday.

Tiled “Vietnam – Que Huong Toi” (Vietnam – My Homeland), the festival will feature traditional Vietnamese cakes for the Tet holiday, including “banh chung,” “banh day,” and “banh tet,” and national costumes like “quai thao” and conical hats, which will be made of thousands of flowers.

A 12m-long and 5m-high model of a dragon, the animal of the year in the lunar calendar, made of hyacinth wood, will also be a highlight of the event. It will be put at the beginning of the street, together with five smaller dragons representing the five basic elements of metal, wood, water, fire and earth.

Painter Minh Phuong, who is in charge of the huge dragon, said her team is willing to work overnight to finish the work on time.

Architect Pham Thi Thuy Ai, designer of the Nguyen Hue Flower Street, told Tuoi Tre that a giant picture titled “Rong Chuc Phuc” (Blessing Dragon), made of around 500 vases of daisies and gerbera flowers together with 5000 lanterns with the wish of a peaceful new year, will be displayed at the end of the street.

More than 300,000 vases of flowers will also be put along the street for spectators to enjoy.

Tran Hung Viet, general director of Saigontourist, the organizer of the festival, said the festival aims to showcase the beauty of Vietnam’s mainland and islands.

“Images of the sea and islands will be featured at the festival in the form beaches, coconut trees and marine animal models made of flowers,” he said. “The light effect will also promise to bring visitors a gorgeous festival.”

At the same time, a book street festival titled “Truyen Thong, Hien Tai va Tuong Lai” (Tradition, Present and Past) will also take place on another stretch of Nguyen Hue Street, as well as Mac Thi Buoi and Ngo Duc Ke streets in District 1.

Themed “Con Duong Truyen Thong” (The Street of Tradition), the event on Mac Thi Buoi will showcase books about Vietnamese history, traditional cultural values, and HCMC in the past.

New books published by local and foreign publishers will be displayed on Nguyen Hue Street together with modern tools for e-books and digital documents under the theme of “Con Duong Giao Thoa Hien Tai Huong Toi Tuong Lai” (The Street of The Meeting between Present and Future).

For its part of “Con Duong Tuong Lai” (The Street of Future), Ngo Duc Ke Street will gather books and documents about the city’s projects in the next few years.

The street also includes children’s and braille books, as well as a play zone for children and book cafés.

The festival, which will gather books from many publishers around the city including Tong Hop, Fahasa, Phuong Nam and Van Hoa Van Nghe, will also hold meetings for visitors with local writers.