Christmas celebration in Vietnam is something else altogether.
Making up just a little over 7% of the population, Christianity is Vietnam’s third-most followed religion after folk religion and Buddhism. As much of the Vietnamese society do not follow the religion, Vietnam approaches Christmas revelries with the same sense of curiosity and non-denominational festivity as one would treat Halloween, Valentine’s Day or St. Patrick’s Day. In the country, Christmas Day is not a public holiday, and the occasion — better known as Noël, after the French term — is often celebrated on the evening of December 24.
If other countries in the west view Christmas as a time for family, coziness and winding down, Vietnamese hit the streets in major urban areas to take photos, visit nativity scenes at churches, and of course, sing cheery Christmas tunes — who can forget Christmas songs? Historically, translating foreign Noël hits into Vietnamese was the common practice, though recent years have seen a rise in popularity of their original versions. Still, the wistful atmosphere and occasionally chilly weather of December have inspired local composers to try their hand at writing Christmas-themed ballads in the Vietnamese language. For those wishing to immerse in the language via well-known holiday tunes, here are five Christmas-themed songs in the Vietnamese language to keep you warm this Noël season.
1. Đêm Thánh Vô Cùng (Silent Night) | Translation: Nguyễn Văn Đông
Originally written in German in 1818, ‘Silent Night’ is perhaps one of the most beloved Christmas songs in the world thanks to its sweet, tender melody. It is also one of the most translated Christmas songs in Vietnamese with at least four different versions circulating. The most popular translation was ‘Đêm thánh vô cùng’ by Hùng Lân, while Nguyễn Văn Đông’s translated lyrics left an indelible mark when Hoàng Oanh sang them for the first time in 1972 as part of the Christmas compilation Sơn Ca 3.
2. Bài Thánh Ca Buồn | Composer: Nguyễn Vũ
Most Gen X and older Vietnamese will probably share a strong association between the holiday season and ‘Bài Thánh Ca Buồn’ (A Woeful Hymm), a maudlin bolero ballad decrying the pain of a withered romance. Despite the name, the song is not actually a hymn, but a contemporary composition by Nguyễn Vũ.
Vũ was born in Hanoi, but spent his formative years in Đà Lạt. When he was 14 years old, his family attended service at the local St. Nicholas Cathedral (Nhà thờ Con Gà), where he harbored a crush on a fellow church-goer. She was two years older than him. One year, after the Christmas mass, it started raining, so they ducked beneath the canopy of a nearby home to wait out the rain, while a distant hymn was reverberating from afar. This melody would eventually become the inspiration for ‘Bài Thánh Ca Buồn.’
3. Feliz Navidad | Translation: Nguyễn Ngọc Thiện
‘Feliz Navidad’ might be the only Spanish-language song that has achieved this level of recognition in Vietnam, and probably the world. Penned by Puerto Rican guitarist José Feliciano just to ease his homesickness, the song is beloved worldwide for its joyous tune and simple lyrics — this also contributes to the track’s reign as Vietnam’s most covered Christmas song as nearly every balladeer in the country has sung it at least once. I chose this rendition by Lam Trường for its distinctively 2000s production and nostalgic qualities — most Vietnamese young adults today might have heard this version on TV or at random bookstores or cafes.
4. Hai Mùa Noel | Composer: Đài Phương Trang
‘Hai Mùa Noel’ (Two Christmas Seasons) is amongst the handful of Vietnamese Christmas songs that are originals and not translated from foreign classics. Writer Đài Phương Trang shared in a previous interview the circumstances that gave him the idea for the song. During a visit to Saigon’s Notre Dame Cathedral on December 24, 1970, he spotted a young man standing beneath a tree across the street, his face a mix of anxiety and anticipation. After the church service concluded, the man was still standing in place waiting for someone.
The young Saigoneer’s steely determination was etched into the mind of Trang, so when his producer broached the subject of writing a Christmas song a year later, Trang immediately recalled the young man from the prior year and wrote the lyrics extrapolating from what he observed. The story didn’t stop there, as three months after the track was released, he received a letter from a listener who claimed to be the man depicted in the song and explained that ‘Hai Mùa Noel’ actually helped him reconcile with the woman whom he was waiting for that night. The songwriter was even invited to the couple's wedding as a gesture of gratitude.
Read more about ‘Hai Mùa Noel’ here.
5. Hồi Chuông Nửa Đêm (Jingle Bells) | Translation: Nguyễn Văn Đông
‘Jingle Bells’ was written by James Lord Pierpont in 1850 in a tavern in Massachusetts, probably first as a drinking song without any connection to Christmas. Still, only two decades later, it quickly gained the wintry association, even though its lyrics feature no overt connections to the holiday season. This Vietnamese-language version was translated by Nguyễn Văn Đông and also first appeared in the Sơn Ca 3 compilation. The translated lyrics bear little resemblance to the original version, whose “bells” refer to those attached to horse harnesses to avoid collisions, as horse-drawn sleighs are often too quiet. Đông’s lyrics instead link the jingling of the bells with those at cathedrals and feature more overt religious connotations. This is a common phenomenon happening to many translated songs, which take on completely different tones in Vietnamese compared to the original version; ABBA's ‘Happy New Year’ is another famous example in which the localized track is much more generic and optimistic than the source material.
