Funerals in Hanoi

If you spend any time in Hanoi you will see a notice posted on different walls at any given time during the month. The paper is a death notice and it tells the community that someone has died and gives all the information. Below is the notice that we saw on our neighbors wall 2 days ago and then today we saw them preparing for the funeral.  It was NOT our neighbor who died, but a family member.

 Im not sure why they wear what they do, but what you wear depends on what generation or distance you are from the deceased.  Often when you are driving down some of the narrow roads, the whole road is blocked with a big blue tent and then you know that a funeral is in progress.

 50 days after the funeral we saw these table and chairs being delivered in front of our house. Our grandmother next door said it is the 50 day observation of the deceased and the tent will be put up in front of our house. Little did we know exactly what that meant. Below is the tent that was put up. It was so interesting to see. The tent took up our whole road and since we only have 1 front door the only way out was to open the door and see all the mourning Vietnamese eating lunch and observing this momentous occasion. I wish I had taken pictures of what it looked like when we opened the door, but it was awkward enough to open the door and be stared at let alone take a picture of it. You'll just have to use your imagination.

Luckily the tent was put up on Sunday afternoon. The funeral was Monday afternoon and by 3pm everything was being cleaned up.

Seeing the Sites

Today was the first time in a month that it was both sunny and warm. So we went on an adventure. Behind our house is a river and many orchards. It is like we are in the city, but can get away from the noise. This is also a time when the river is dry, so we took advantage and went exploring. These were some of our sites.

Others taking advantage of todays nice weather.  

This is Preston and I trying to cross the dry river, but It was muddy so we tried to step on the broken pottery that was around us until we reached the sand. 

Can you tell we were excited for 60 degree weather? What a great day and Im thankful we were outside to enjoy it.

Hanoi's 1000th Birthday!

What is that you say, "1000 YEARS" WOW! Then Preston points to his shirt which says good morning Vietnam.
People were very patriotic with red banners that read I love Hanoi and stickers on their cheeks. The lakes in Hanoi always have people around walking, taking pictures, and just relaxing. However, on 10-10-10 there were more people then normal. Thousands of people were out to celebrate the special anniversary of their beloved city.

We had a lot of fun walking around, but if we stayed in one place for long, massive amounts of people would close in on us wanting to take pictures of Preston. If you ever want to know what it feels like to have paparazzi follow you then come to Vietnam or China with a small child. Getting your picture taken will become a daily occurrence. Preston has started putting his hands up by his eyes and pretending to take pictures of other people.

Fall moon festival

During the fall moon festival we went into the main city, to see how the locals celebrate. In Viet Nam mid Autumn festival is one of the most popular family holidays. It is held on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. Vietnamese plan this holiday around the children in their family. In a Vietnamese folklore, parents were working so hard to prepare for the harvest that they left the children to play by themselves. To make up for lost time, parents would use the mid autumn festival to make up for lost time. We decided to head out and see what the families were doing to celebrate. Below is Preston playing a drum while the other kids danced and played with masks and other musical instruments.

If I had to compare this holiday with something in the states. I would say it is a mix between Halloween and Thanksgiving.

The most popular food ate during this holiday is the moon cake