Hanoi (VNA) – The Foreign Trade University (FTU) has held a Lunar New Year (Tet) celebration programme called “Tet sum vay, Xuan binh an” (Tet of reunion, peaceful spring) for lecturers and students along with their foreign peers who are teaching and studying at its headquarters in Hanoi.

Addressing the opening of the annual event, Rector Bui Anh Tuan highlighted the purpose of the annual programme, which aims to revive the atmosphere of the holiday - the longest and biggest in Vietnam – and to honour the Vietnamese culture on this occasion.

It also helps foreign students learn about the festival, enjoy traditional dishes, participate in traditional games, and popularise the country’s culture to international friends.

With the theme of “Huong Tet” (Tet Flavour), the FTU’s programme re-enacted the scenery and atmosphere of celebrating Tet in the northern region. Pots of fragrant coriander leaf water were placed on the schoolyard to dispel the cold of winter, folk games such as di ca kheo (walking on stilts), o an quan (mandarin square capturing) and bamboo dance revived, and traditional dishes such as banh duc nong (Vietnamese salted rice flour cake with ground pork and wood-ear mushroom) and xoi che (sticky rice with sweet soup) offered at stalls. Other activities were also held on this occasion, including making banh chung (square glutinous rice cake) and arranging five-fruit trays or flowers. According to Tuan, through the organisation of the games that many people probably haven’t played in a long time and the decoration of five-fruit tray and peach blossoms on ancestral altars, they wanted to bring a warm and friendly Tet atmosphere to lectures and students, especially foreign ones. At the event, foreign students from France, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, India, Laos, and Ukraine were briefed on the traditional features of Tet and instructed on how to wrap and boil banh chung. They also joined Tet flower arrangement and five-fruit tray competitions, played folk games, visited rural market stalls, and enjoyed traditional dishes. Coming to Vietnam for the first time, Melchior Reimers, a student from Germany, said he was impressed with the vibrant and warm atmosphere after joining the Tet celebration. He also showed his interest in making banh chung and was eager to taste this typical Vietnamese cake. Earlier, the FTU’s Trade Union and Youth Union in collaboration with other units organised activities to celebrate Tet such as a talk show on the beauty of the Vietnamese Tet culture with the participation of culture experts. Within the framework of the programme, the FTU campuses in Ho Chi Minh City and Quang Ninh province also held many events such as music competition and presented gifts to lonely elderly people and children in difficult circumstances in the localities./.