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The Hanoitimes - The school break in Hanoi will begin on January 22 (the 28th day of the last lunar month) and last until January 29 (the fifth day of the first lunar month). Hanoi students will have an eight-day school break in the upcoming Tet holiday, according to the Hanoi Department of Education and Training. Accordingly, the school break in Hanoi will begin on January 22 (the 28th day of the last lunar month) and last until January 29 (the fifth day of the first lunar month). Illustrative photo The schools are asked to instruct the students to have proper behavior during the long school break and ensure social order and traffic safety. In particular, students are instructed not to engage in illegal racing, gambling or social evils. Meanwhile, government offices, state-owned companies and schools across the country will close for seven days. This is one of the two seven-day holiday options proposed by the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs in August. Under the second option, the holiday would start on January 24, a day before Tet, and run until January 30, the sixth day of the new lunar year. After considering the two options, the ministry considered the first more suitable as people working away from home will have two days off to travel and prepare for the most significant holiday of the year. Vietnam had a nine-day break for the last Tet festival that fell in February this year. There has been a long-lasting debate on whether Vietnam should merge the celebration of Lunar New Year holiday with the Gregorian New Year, or the Tet holiday should be shortened. Tet is the biggest and most important festival in Vietnam. Millions of migrant workers in major cities return to their homes before Lunar New Year's Eve. It is celebrated by Vietnamese and Chinese communities around the world. It is also a prolific season for the retail and travel businesses as the consumption and excursion demand is high during this time …

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At 6 a.m. Friday, the 15th day of the first lunar month, Ly A Ton, 62, woke early to prepare offerings, including fresh flowers, fruit, incense, boiled chicken and fried cakes ( jian dui ) in front of his house on Tran Hung Dao Street in District 5. Instead of flocking to a Chinese-built pagoda with his offerings and burning incense to the gods as in previous years, Ton stayed home and set up a table to worship the deities for fear of gathering in crowds amid the new Covid-19 outbreak that began in the country in late January. He then hung red pieces of paper bearing Chinese characters on his walls to pray for peace and good fortune. "This is the most important ritual during Tet Nguyen Tieu ," he said, referring to the Lantern Festival, known as the biggest and most important festival of the year for ethnic Chinese, marking the final day of the traditional Lunar New Year ( Tet ) celebration. It is observed on the 15th day of the first lunar month, the first Full Moon day of the Lunar New Year. " Tet Nguyen Tieu to us is even more important than Lunar New Year’s Eve and Chinese like us always light incense to deities at pagodas and temples to pray for the removal of bad luck and a year of peace and happiness," Ton noted. "But the Covid-19 outbreak forced us to celebrate on a smaller scale this year. I am old and scared of contracting the virus or spreading it to my family members. Therefore, I limit going out and gathering in crowds." He also had to cancel a reunion party with his relatives and could not visit his friends during the festival, which is an occasion for reunited families to eat dumplings and floating rice cakes made of glutinous rice flour wrapped around a sweet filling. Inside the 250-year-old Lady Thien Hau Temple, which is dedicated to worship the Goddess of the Sea, the devout convey their prayers by lighting spiral incense sticks that can burn for weeks. Photo by VnExpress/Phong Vinh. Ton is one of thousands …

[Read more...] about Covid-19 wave forces Chinese Vietnamese to celebrate Lantern Festival in silence

The Hanoitimes - Relevant agencies have been asked to exert efforts in ensuring safety for students when they resume going to schools, and enforce strict measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Hanoi students are set to come back to school on March 2 after one-month break and online classes to prevent the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a dispatch issued by the municipal People’s Committee on February 27. The date applies for students from kindergarten to high school levels, while colleges and centers for vocational training and continuing education will reopen a week later. Students at Le Quy Don Secondary School in Hanoi wear masks in class and practices mild social distancing. Photo: Van Trong University student schedules would be determined by the schools themselves, though the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control recommended that they should reopen on March 15 to ensure social distancing measures. Relevant agencies have been asked to exert efforts in ensuring safety for students when they resume going to schools, and enforce strict measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19. To ensure safety for students, this weekend, schools have disinfected their campuses and prepare materials for the epidemic prevention, in addition to having a clear approach to managing students. Schools have also regularly disinfected areas, especially those being constantly touched, and vehicles used to carry students. As on-site classes resume, parents need to take their children's body temperatures at home, prepare them masks and personal items so they would not have to share them with classmates to avoid infection, the municipal authority said. Previously, Hanoi students started staying home on February 1, about a week earlier than the expected beginning of the Tet break due to a new wave of Covid-19 sweeping nationwide and new cases of locally-transmitted cases were reported in the city. After the one-week …

[Read more...] about Hanoi students to return to school next Tuesday amid tight medical control