How do you say “Christmas” in Vietnamese?
The word ‘Christmas’ in Vietnamese is either Giáng Sinh or in some contexts the French influenced Nô en or Noel.
Is Christmas celebrated in Vietnam?
To put it simply no, not in the Western sense. There is a Catholic minority and a small number of Christians who do value the day.
However, Christmas decorations go up. The cities bring out the Christmas sparkle and downtown is packed on Christmas Eve. There feels like no real purpose or meaning to the festivities, and almost no-one has the day off work.
For Westerners, Christmas in Vietnam is a strange affair.
What do Vietnamese celebrate?
The biggest holiday of the year is Tết – lunar new year. This tends to fall in either January or February, depending on the lunar cycle. It’s common to see Tết decorations starting to appear around Christmas time.
What’s “Merry Christmas” in Vietnamese?
Although it’s not a Vietnamese holiday you may still be wondering how to say “Merry Christmas” in Vietnamese. There are a few natural ways to say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Christmas”:
Chúc mừng Giáng Sinh
Giáng Sinh vui vẻ
Giáng Sinh an lành
–
Whether you’re in Vietnam or not this Christmas – chúc các bạn Giáng Sinh vui vẻ! (I wish you all a Merry Christmas!)
2 replies on “Chúc mừng Giáng Sinh (Merry Christmas)”
Hi Thảo,
Such an interesting and informative blog, really love it. As a Vietnamese, I also find it useful, especially those French influenced words. I really didn’t know some of them *shame face* 🙂 Keep up the great work!
Oh, btw, chúc mừng năm mới.
Thanks, Vu! It’s true that we don’t often look closely at our own language. I didn’t really think about English until I started teaching it.