Warm Tet away from home for Vietnamese community in France

NDO - In the chilly weather of the suburbs of Paris, the Tet holiday far from home of the Vietnamese community in France becomes warmer with the Tet Market 2024 festival.

On February 3, at the Baltard Cultural House in the city of Nogent-sur-Marne in the suburbs of Paris, the 2024 Tet Market organized by the Association of Vietnamese in France (UGVF) is an ideal meeting place for the overseas Vietnamese community on the occasion of the traditional New Year.

The Vietnamese community living and working in Paris, in the capital region of Ile-de-France and from many other places in France come to participate in the Tet Market to meet and chat after a long year of work, to enjoy the art program to welcome Spring, celebrate Tet, and traditional dishes of the nation.

As one of the biggest events of the Vietnamese community in France and held at the Baltard Cultural House with an area of ​​over 3,000m2, Tet Market has become an annual meeting place of the Vietnamese community living in France every time Tet comes and Spring comes.

Nearly thirty food stalls, handicrafts and many traditional Vietnamese Tet decorations were present at this community event.

This year’s event attracted a record number of attendees, with over 9,000 registrations. Despite the large number of people, security and food safety were always ensured, helping people have a joyful and warm festival.

Not only Vietnamese families, but also Vietnamese - French families and international friends come to visit, enjoy special traditional performances, as well as experience traditional dishes of Vietnamese people during Tet.

The event is an opportunity for family members to spend time together, to enjoy a Tet atmosphere, although far from home, but still filled with the warmth of compatriots and fellow countrymen.

The program recreates a traditional Tet space with all the beautiful cultural features of thousands of years of civilization of the homeland such as spring food stalls, meticulously and elaborately decorated fruit trays, taking souvenir photos with street vendors with familiar peach and apricot branches.

The sugarcane juice stall seems to attract overseas Vietnamese the most, because only in community events like this is this very familiar drink from home sold.

The performing arts space is equipped with a modern sound and lighting system, serving a large number of people with unique and attractive performances in many time slots from 4 pm to 2 am the next morning.

The opening of the art program was a lively and bustling lion dance with the applause and cheers of the children. Next, the Son Long Quyen Thuat sect brought the audience a dramatic martial arts performance with powerful punches.

The performances were performed by generations of overseas Vietnamese in France. Many children were not yet fluent in Vietnamese but still brought pride in their mother tongue to the Tet Market stage, humming traditional folk songs.

The singing of the children is not very fluent in Vietnamese, but shows their desire to learn about national culture, to understand more, love more and be more proud of the traditional values ​​of the Vietnamese people.

According to Vietnamese Ambassador to France Dinh Toan Thang, 2023 has passed with many positive contributions to the cooperative relationship, building and further strengthening the friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and France. The overseas Vietnamese community also had many exciting activities in response to the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations and 10 years of Vietnam-France strategic partnership in the past year. The Ambassador hopes that 2024 will still be a year with many exciting activities and many achievements of the overseas Vietnamese community, contributing to the continued solid development of the relationship between the two countries.

Besides the meaning of reunion, connection and community development, Tet Market is also an opportunity for overseas Vietnamese to be proud of and promote the image of the country, people and cultural traditions of Vietnam to friends in the host country.

TRIUMPH - MINH DUY

Nhan Dan Newspaper reporter based in France

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