Vietnamese Culture Essay

Exploring Vietnamese Culture Viet Nam War or Pho are the two popular things that people usually think about when the words “Viet Name” are mentioned. However, there are many interesting things about Viet Nam and its culture that people need to learn and explore more. Throughout the history, Vietnamese’s culture has been shaped and influenced by the Chinese, the French, the Russians, and the Americans. Even though the culture has impacts from all of the outside influences, Vietnamese people still maintain and embrace their own culture.
The traditional Vietnamese wedding is one of the most important ceremonies in Vietnamese culture. Depending on habits of specific ethnic groups, in general, there are two main ceremonies: “Le an hoi” and “Le
The way a funeral is organized in Vietnam is strongly influenced by Chinese. Most funerals in Vietnam consist of three stages. The first stage is called “Nhap Quan”. The purpose of this stage is to clean the death body, remove the body from the old clothes and wear in the death clothes, then place it inside the coffin. The clothes are made from white fabric, and not only the death body but also the husband, wife, their children and the grandsons have to wear this funeral clothes. All families and relatives will go slowly around the coffin to show respect and to see their deceased family member for the last time. The second stage of the funeral is visiting. According to Javier Garcia, who is student of Diablo Valley College, comes from Columbia culture, he said that “the funeral in Viet Nam occurs in different tone from the funeral in Columbia.” In Columbia funeral, visitors usually dance and celebrate the lives of lost ones while in Viet Name funeral, visitors usually come to share the sorrow with the family. They wear dark color clothes and bring sympathy flower, sometimes attached with an envelope containing money. When the visiting stage ends, the representative of the family will have a short speech to thank all the visitors. The coffin of the death is moved to a special funeral car and taken to the interring place and followed by the family members. The mourning time after the funeral is mostly from three months to three years. During the mourning time, the family members have to wear a small black piece of cloth on the arm or