The neo-Gothic St Joseph’s Cathedral in downtown Hanoi was built in 1886 and remains active today to a large community of local Catholics. Christmas in Vietnam has had a tumultuous history. The Catholics are a minority who used to celebrate Christmas during French rule. Since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, church-state relations have not always been smooth. However, they have been improving since the introduction of economic reforms in the late 1980s. Liberalist policies adopted since the 1980s saw Vietnam warming up to western influences and Christmas in Vietnam returned. These photographs are from December 2015.
Credits:
All photographs ©2017/ Geoffrey Hiller