The tenth day of this lunar year, which falls on Thursday this year, is designated as the God of Wealth Day in Vietnamese belief, which is believed to bring fortune and prosperity to people who buy gold on that day.

According to Vietnamese tradition, the tenth day of the lunar calendar is the day when the God of Wealth returns to heaven.

This year, however, many fortune seekers embraced the tradition early.

Gold shops in Ho Chi Minh City were packed with customers as early as Tuesday, according to the observation of Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reporters.

As this lunar year is the Year of the Tiger, the majority of customers are young couples who want to buy the zodiac animal statues and jewelry in the hope of obtaining financial success.

Hong Hoa and Thai Khang, both 28, stated that they decided to visit a gold shop in District 1 early in the morning and chose a golden tiger figure that caught their eyes.

To avoid crowds and given the expectation that prices would rise if he bought gold on the correct day, Khang chose to buy gold earlier than usual.

"We looked for a suitable statue all day yesterday but came home with nothing,” Khang shared.

“Fortunately, we found it today.

"By purchasing this statue for my girlfriend on both God of Wealth Day and Valentine's Day, I killed two birds with one stone.”

Thuy Diem, 26, decided to buy two golden tiger statues for herself and her mother.

"Couples exchange their gifts [on Valentine’s Day]," Diem said.

“I’m still single so I purchased these gold tiger figures for myself and my mother."

On Tuesday, gold fell to as low as US$1,816 an ounce on the global market and was equivalent to VND50 million a tael (37.5 grams) at the close of trading.

Saigon Jewelry Company (SJC), Vietnam’s leading gold producer, was buying and selling at VND61.9 million ($2,724) and VND62.6 million ($2,755) per tael, respectively, as of 3:30 pm on Tuesday in Ho Chi Minh City.

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