It Is Good To Be A Girl In Vietnam

Source: Saigon Nezumi

Well, finally, the endless marathon of giving gifts and flowers to girls will end on Sunday. March 8th is International Women’s Day which is observed in Vietnam. On this day, guys must give their girlfriends and/or wives flowers and a nice card. Some guys will even take their girlfriend and/or wife out to a good dinner. It can be a romantic occasion.

If you are a guy and you forget this day, umm, you will be in big trouble. Especially if you have a girlfriend or are married. For that matter, if you miss the other significant days for girls here, you can get into big trouble.

I mentioned in the first paragraph about the marathon of gifts and flowers. It is quite true. Gift and flower giving starts in December and ends in March. During those 4 months, you have five occassions where you must give flowers and/or gifts. They include:

* Christmas (December 24/25th) - Must give a gift and dinner
* New Year’s Eve (December 31st) - Must give a gift and dinner
* Tet Lunar New Year - Must give a gift and lucky money
* Valentine’s Day (February 14) - Must give flowers , chocolate, and dinner
* Women’s Day (March 8th) - Must give flowers and dinner

There are two other occasions where you will have to give flowers and/or a gift to your girlfriend and/or wife:

* Birthday - Must give flowers, card, gift, and pay for their birthday party
* Vietnam Women’s Day (October 20th) - Just flowers are ok on this day

I think the Vietnamese have missed the point for March 8. International Women's Day is a day to celebrate women and for women for fight for equal rights in society. You will usually see mass-demonstrations on this day. It's kind of like a Women's Labour Day. It shouldn't be a day to wine and dine girlfriend.

In Canada I think it's been reduced to just Christmas, Birthday and Valentines. Although these are totally blown out of proportion these days.