Legends of Vietnam

Legends of Vietnam

Intro:

A fascinating peculiarity is the strong belief in the spiritual. This led throughout history to the creation of a multitude of tales and legends in Vietnam. Surprising, intriguing, amusing, touching and sometimes frightening, this mysticism is above all exciting.

Between dragons, genius, ghosts, the stories are worthy of Hollywood films ( one could even wonder who inspired the other). If for Westerners, this type of legend is often incredible, in Vietnam, we do not joke with it and we respect it.

If certain legends are recognized nationally, by traveling through the country, even in the most remote places, one realizes that locally, these “fables” exist and can concern even a simple object of daily life.

Vietnam has therefore matured accompanied by these legends. Today, we can still feel its impact whether in rural areas or in urban cities. This is what makes the charm of the capital Hanoi, a mixture of modernism and mystical traditions, sometimes buried, sometimes revealed.

Representations in the captions:

Everything has a story in Vietnam and that is what fascinates and delights travelers. Each plot of land, each animal, each object refers or alludes to a story. As nothing was the result of chance and that everything had a meaning, philosophical and / or spiritual.

The representations are therefore multiple, both realistic and surreal.

The best known will mention a dragon, a turtle (for the best known) without forgetting the bravery of certain warriors and the strength of women.

We can of course evoke the formation of Halong Bay by the protective dragon with its young , passing by the rock formation of the To Thi mountain in the province of Lang Son. This rocky pile representing a woman carrying a child has become an emblem of the loyalty of Vietnamese women. She would have remained thus with her children waiting for her valiant soldier husband to return from the war.

To sum up, the majority of legends are about love or war. Two fundamental elements in a country where family values and nationalism are predominant.

This is reflected in the charming and moving legend of the Mosquito that you will find in the next article in this category.

In brief about legends of Vietnam:

We can count hundreds, thousands ! All addressing a message, a philosophy to follow, fears to respect, superstitions to avoid or meditate on. In any case, these collections of legends remain a great inspiration to follow one’s life path in Vietnam. We can unfortunately consider that the evolution of societies and mentalities is likely to reduce their impact for the next generations, at least for the most popular. The fact remains that nowadays, Vietnam would be a little more bland without its myths and legends.