One of many surprises here is that ten per cent of the population are Catholic. Tonight, on a stage outside St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Hanoi, the congregation are putting on a Christmas show. Sixteen little girls in cheerleader outfits dance and sing along to Christmas carols. A crowd of doting relatives and perplexed foreigners cheers and claps. Then a group of teenage girls in santa-red ao dais perform almost exactly the same demure routines. As a finale, a local priest sings Silent Night, in Vietnamese, while the children dance around him and a brave pianist tries to keep up with the frequent changes of key and tempo.
And then the coup de theatre: a fan blows styrofoam snow over the crowd. Most of these boys will never see real snow, but instinctively they know what to do - scoop up the small pieces and dump them over the heads of squealing girls, and throw the large pieces at each other’s heads.
Mung Chua Giang Sinh: Merry Christmas everyone, or as we say in Irish, Happy Christmas.