On my first full day in Hanoi, I attended mass at St. Joseph's Cathedral. It was built in the 1880's, and worship resumed in 1990 under the Communist government. Although not by design, I was pleased to attend the children's mass, sung by the youth choir whose rehearsal I heard as I sat in the nave before the service.

I wondered how Asian Christians would reconcile the coincidence this year of New Year's Eve and Ash Wednesday on February 6th. Lunar New Year is hugely festive, nothing penitential about it, unless you count the thorough house-cleaning that is part of the traditional preparation. Hanoi was pulsing with holiday excitement. I won't even attempt the lunar calculation, but it seems inevitable that the two events must coincide at predictable intervals.