The Lunar New Year decorations on a number of streets in downtown Ho Chi Minh City will be fixed after causing confusion among locals with their dazzling technicolor and abstraction.

For the past few weeks, a series of bright-colored light decorations have been put up on multiple streets in District 1 to celebrate the upcoming Tet, or Lunar New Year, which falls on January 28.

On Pham Ngoc Thach Street that runs from the back of the Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica of Saigon, the circle-shaped LED lights in various colors are supposed to stand for sound waves, demonstrating the youthfulness and dynamism of the city.

However, locals say they look closer to decorative flowers painted on the walls of kindergartens, as the ‘sound waves’ are too cramped and colorful, making them difficult to be made out from a distance.

One of the decorative arcs on Pham Ngoc Thach Street even caught fire on Sunday evening, supposedly due to a short circuit.

Locals use handheld fire extinguishers to put out the fire on one of the decorative arcs on Pham Ngoc Thach Street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, January 15, 2017. Clip: Facebook

Meanwhile, the abstract decorations on Nam Ky Khoi Nghia Street were intended by designers to represent the two iconic local rice cakes of ‘banh chung’ and ‘banh giay,’ revoking a Vietnamese folk story in which the cakes stood for the earth and the sky, respectively.

The ambitious LED displays, suspended over the street by a web of steel beams and cables, have been criticized for making the street stuffy and dense, while locals say they simply do not get the meaning of the decorations.

According to Siu Quy, vice chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Association of Fine Arts who advised city leaders on the street decorations, he and other artists had only been given computer-generated 3D models of the adornments to approve, while the final appearance was different due to various factors.

Quy said his team of art advisors had sat down with the city’s administration on Friday to agree on a plan to fix the embellishments.

Decorative arcs on Le Duan Street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

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