Every Day Is Ao Dai Day

My pitiful attempt at ao dai art-ing. I waited for the woman wearing ao dai at the corner of the park near Notre dame Cathedral just to get a good shot and look what I got. You can see women wearing ao dai in the city just about every day. This pic shows what I love most about Vietnam. It has clearly not forgotten its history. Yet.

The same is not true in my own country. If a woman wears a baro't saya, the traditional dress of women in the Philippines, the natural assumption is a) she's a public school teacher and today is filipiniana day b) she's a politician/public school teacher/government employee and she's attending an important community/school/ function in which she needs to showcase her "patriotic spirit" by wearing such and such.

(There was a time when the government required their employees to wear filipiniana clothes on a certain day of the week. Hence, the term filipiniana day. Not sure if it's still being implemented, though.)