Hanoi Spring Fair 2020 to highlight vegetarian dishes, healthy lifestyle

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The 2020 Spring Fair, themed “A vegan Tet (Lunar New Year Festival)”, will be held for the first time at the Vietnam Exhibition Centre for Culture and Arts in Hanoi from January 13-19, 2020.

The 2020 Spring Fair, themed “A vegan Tet (Lunar New Year Festival)”, will be held for the first time at the Hanoi-based Vietnam Exhibition Centre for Culture and Arts from January 13-19, aims to promote a healthy lifestyle that is also good for the environment, while spreading the message of peace and love.

The fair will gather numerous enterprises, organisations and chefs specialising in vegetarian dishes and prominent environmental activists from across the country.

In addition to pavilions featuring perse vegan products, visitors can join various interesting and exciting activities, including making vegan banh chung (square glutinous rice cake), coconut jam and peanuts, as well as drawing lacquer paintings, making lanterns for Tet and request calligraphy letters.

Besides, traditional folk games such as ca kheo (walking on stilts), bell ringing, shooting magic crossbow and hopscotch jumping will be held.

Notably, a talkshow will also be held, providing knowledge of practical methods to protect people’s health and the environment. Leading experts in traditional medicine will answer questions regarding vegan nutrition.

The event is expected to attract more than 20,000 visitors.

Vegetarian food, mostly vegan, has become increasingly popular in Vietnam over the last few years. All major cities, including the capital, have many restaurants that serve vegan food, and their number is increasing everyday.

With its abundance of delicious vegetables, fruits and roots, Vietnam has all the conditions to cater to vegans.

Vegans can find in Vietnam a variety of vegetarian dishes. However, the most common vegan dishes are made of đậu tương (soybeans). Apart from tofu, steamed and fried, soybeans lend themselves to tương đậu nành (soya paste), chả luạ chay (veggie Vietnamese ham) and a wide variety of other dips and dishes.

Since soybeans are nutritious, rich in protein and calcium, and non-fattening, they are a good replacement for animal meat. They are also said to be useful in treating several illnesses, including heart disease and cancer.

Vegans can also find in Vietnam many dishes that look like they’re made with real meat. For example, chicken legs are made of citronella stems with a special tofu wrapping that even has the texture of meat. The dishes even include Barbecued pork chops, beef wrapped in la lot leaves, stewed chicken and steamed fish.

For many Vietnamese, a vegan diet is traditionally confined to two sacred Buddhist days a month, an observance of compassion for all sentient being.

Many Vietnamese believe that releasing living creatures and not eating meat during Vu Lan festival and death anniversaries will help reduce bad karmas. Therefore, many people decide to go vegan on these days as a good deed to tribute their parents. Vegan offering trays thereby become common during Vu Lan Festival.

The habit of going vegan and visiting pagodas on the first and fifteenth days of each lunar month dates back from the Ly dynasty (1010-1225) as Buddhism grew very strong then. Nowadays, going vegan has crossed the boundary of the religion to become a trend of a healthy lifestyle./.