2014 Ho Chi Minh City Incredible Traffic Jam Vietnam Lunar New Year TET Downtown Saigon January 2014 - Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City - Vietnam Follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/SeMeyer888 Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnamese: Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh; About this sound listen, formerly named Saigon (Vietnamese: Sài Gòn; About this sound listen, French: Saïgon), is the largest city in Vietnam. Under the name Saigon, it was the capital of the French colony of Cochinchina and later of the independent republic of South Vietnam from 1955--75. South Vietnam was a capitalist and anti-communist state which fought against the communist North Vietnamese and Viet Cong during the Vietnam War, with the assistance of the United States and other countries. On 30 April 1975, Saigon fell and the war ended with a Communist victory. On 2 July 1976, Saigon merged with the surrounding Gia Định Province and was officially renamed Ho Chi Minh City after Hồ Chí Minh (although the name Sài Gòn is still commonly used).[3] The metropolitan area, which consists of the Ho Chi Minh City metropolitan area, Thủ Dầu Một, Dĩ An, Biên Hòa and surrounding towns, is populated by more than 9,000,000 people,[nb 1] making it the most populous metropolitan area[4] in Vietnam. The city's population is expected to grow to 13.9 million in 2025.[5] The Ho Chi Minh City Metropolitan Area, a metropolitan area covering most parts of the Southeast region plus Tiền Giang Province and Long An Province under planning, will have an area of 30,000 square kilometres (11,583 sq mi) with a population of 20 million inhabitants by 2020.[6] According to the Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Economist Intelligence Unit and ECA International, Ho Chi Minh City is ranked 132 on the list of world's most expensive cities for expatriate employees. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh_City For the 1968 military operation that began on that holiday, see Tết Offensive. For other uses, see Tet (disambiguation). For other traditions of celebrating lunar new year, see Lunar New Year (disambiguation). This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2011) Tết ([tet˧˥] or [tɜːt˧˥]), or Vietnamese New Year, is the most important celebration of Vietnamese culture. The word is a shortened form of Tết Nguyên Đán (Nôm: 節元旦) , which is Sino-Vietnamese for "Feast of the First Morning of the First Day". It celebrates the arrival of spring based on the Chinese calendar, a lunisolar calendar, which usually has the date falling between the months of January or February.[1] Tết is celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year, though exceptions arise due to the one-hour time difference between Hanoi and Beijing resulting in the alternate calculation of the new moon. It takes place from the first day of the first month of the Vietnamese calendar (around late January or early February) until at least the third day. Many Vietnamese prepare for Tết by cooking special holiday foods and cleaning the house. There are a lot of customs practiced during Tết, such as visiting a person's house on the first day of the new year (xông nhà), ancestral worshipping, wishing New Year's greetings, giving lucky money to children and elderly people, and opening a shop. Tết is also an occasion for pilgrims and family reunions. During Tết, Vietnamese visit their relatives and temples, forgetting about the troubles of the past year and hoping for a better upcoming year. They consider Tết to be the first day of spring and the festival is often called Hội xuân (spring festival). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%E1%BA%BFt

• published: 02 Feb 2014
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