A: S.B Sharma of India wrote: “Congratulations on VOV’s many successes since laying the first brick. Your programs have described the great work done by the liberation radio station. Each milestone of VOV is well elaborated in the programs. You’re really doing great work, which attracts millions of happy and satisfied listeners around the globe. We’re getting interesting, informative, and educative programs. Thanks for your great work.”

B: Omar Lassas of Algeria said, “Please accept my heartiest congratulations and best wishes on the occasion of VOV’s 73^rd anniversary. Good team work and the best will come. Keep aiming higher, the sky should not be the limit. Wonderful, amazing, beautiful, and incredible VOV Radio.”

VOV5's Director  congratulates the English service's founding anniversary on September 7.

A: The Metali Listeners’ Club sent us a greeting from India: “VOV is a window into Vietnam. I cannot learn about Vietnam except on VOV. Not only radio broadcast, VOV has TV channels, and print and online newspapers. It is a role model of multimedia in Vietnam.”

B: Najim Uddin of India congratulated the Voice of Vietnam for 73 years of reform and development. He wrote: “Over the past 73 years, VOV has been a pioneer in innovation for me. VOV’s program on September 7^th covered the anniversary on air and web page. Its first signature said: “This is the Voice of Vietnam, broadcasting from Hanoi, capital of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam,” the great and nostalgic voice of VOV during the shortwave era. Through this special program I have received lots of information about VOV’s reformed content and format. Hope you have more and more progress and success connecting people around the world.”

Colleges congratulate the English service's 73rd founding anniversary.

A: Amir Jameel of Pakistan and his fellow club members congratulated VOV’s staff and managers on its 73^rd anniversary. We like your lovely postcards for this happy event and will post them on our website. 

B: Thank you, listeners, for sharing our happiness and success. Without your support we couldn’t achieve what we have achieved. Now let’s check out reception reports from listeners. We just welcome Dmitry Elagin of Russia to VOV’s DX’ing community. He just sent us a reception report for the first time and included VOV’s broadcast on a video clip he posted on Youtube.

A: Thank you for your interesting video clip and detailed reception report. We’ll send you a QSL card to confirm it. Rasheed Naz of Pakistan is a new listener who says he is interested in Vietnam’s history and culture. We’ll send you our latest program guide and frequency list, Rasheed, to make it easier for you to tune in to our program.

B: Shyamal Kumar Banerjee of India told us that he listened to a program on September 5 on 7220khz at 16:00 UTC. He said after the news, which discussed the Vietnam-Russia relationship, he could not hear anything as the reception was very poor. Listening to the following day’s program, Banerjee rated SINPO at all 4s.

A: We hope your reception problem on September 5 was temporary. Anyway we’ve forwarded your remarks to our technical section. S.B Sharma of India also listened to our program on the frequency of 7220 khz on September 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th. He used a Sangean ATS405 digital radio. The audio on September 5^th and 6^th was not so good but could be heard with some effort. On September 7^th the transmission was good.  It started with some noise and interference but after some time the signal became quite good and clear. 

B: Eddy Prabowo of Indonesia listened to our program on September 11^th on the frequency of 7315 kHz. He rated SINPO at 34443. His technical remarks said moderate signal strength, the audio heard relatively stable, with minor fading and minor noise.

A: We hope to receive more feedback because your remarks help our technicians monitor and improve our overseas transmission. This week, some of our listeners wanted to know about Vietnam’s national animal and flower. We don’t have an official national animal, but the lotus flower is widely recognized as Vietnam's national flower. It embraces Vietnamese cultural values and is closely associated with Vietnamese life as reflected in paintings, poems, and architecture. A folksong that almost all Vietnamese know is:

“In a pond, nothing is more beautiful than a lotus

Green leaves, white petals, with yellow pistils

Yellow pistils, white petals, and green leaves

Grow in the mud but reek not of mud.”

A lotus pond outside Hue Imperial City

B: The lotus symbolizes beauty, commitment, health, honor, and knowledge. Lotus flowers grow from a muddy pond but grow toward the sun, which symbolizes purity of spirit. The lotus is said to be the symbol of summer because it blossoms in the summer time when there is a lot of bright sunlight. At night the flower closes and sinks underwater, at dawn it rises and opens again.

A: Lotus flowers look and smell beautiful. Different parts of the lotus can be used for different purposes. The flowers are used for praying. The seeds are dried and sweetened, and me into medicine to treat headache and insomnia. The green leaves are used to wrap steamed sticky rice and chicken. The petals are used to scent lotus tea.

B: In lotus season, many localities in Vietnam organize lotus festivals. In June Thua Thien-Hue province hosted Lotus Festival 2018 themed “Legend of a flower”. On the central stage, designed to represent a lotus lake, a show of Ao Dai decorated with lotus patterns was held along with music performances.  Stalls sold products made from lotus bamboo, lotus leaves, and lotus flowers.

A: Dong Thap province in the Mekong Delta is famous for its lotus fields. The motto of the province is ‘Dong Thap, as pure as the soul of the lotus’. The noble beauty of lotus, the sacred flower of Buddhism, impresses the many tourists who visit the wild wetlands of the plain of reeds.

A lotus pond in Dong Thap Muoi

B: Its highlights are the immense lotus fields at the foot of the Go Thap national relic, the primeval cajuput forests of Xeo Quyt national park, and the countless lotus ponds in between stretches of rice fields. Eco-tourism sites have been created in Dong Thap, increasing weekend visitors to the lotus fields of My Hoa and Tan Kieu district, and in recent years, the community-based tourism model has been expanded.

A: That wraps up our Letter Box for today. Thank you for listening to VOV. Please join us again next Wednesday for another edition of the Letter Box. Goodbye till then.