Ukrainian bride with 900,000 followers: From 'fear' to love showing off Vietnamese Tet

"Westerners Celebrate Tet" gathers interesting shares from foreign tourists about the traditional Vietnamese Tet holiday. At first, they were confused about Vietnamese Tet because of the cultural differences, but gradually, the meaningful customs, the "once-eaten-and-forget-it" specialties and the warm, full emotions of the Vietnamese people have made Western visitors enjoy Vietnamese Tet. On the last day of the year, despite being busy with business and filming schedules for partners, Sofia still took the time to decorate her small apartment, buy more apricot trees, flower vases, and personally choose each lucky money envelope to give to her daughter, parents-in-law, friends, etc. This is the 6th year that Sofia (30 years old, Ukrainian nationality) has celebrated the traditional Tet holiday in Vietnam. The Ukrainian female student who was once "slightly shocked" by Vietnamese Tet has now become a good wife, mother, and daughter-in-law, skillfully making spring rolls, arranging fruit trays, enjoying going to the pagoda at the beginning of the year, receiving lucky money, wearing Ao Dai, etc. and passionate about sharing Tet moments with her family on the Tiktok channel with nearly 900,000 followers. The videos shared about Vietnamese cuisine, customs, and beautiful landscapes by Sofia and her husband attract a lot of viewers. "Every year celebrating the traditional Tet holiday in Vietnam, I have memorable memories. Each Tet season has different emotions," Sofia shared. On the occasion of Lunar New Year 2024, instead of returning to her husband's hometown to celebrate Tet, Sofia and her husband - Phan Vu Son (32 years old, from Nam Dinh) decided to fly from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang. Son's parents and younger brother will fly from Hanoi to this coastal city. The whole family will gather to celebrate Tet while traveling and relaxing. Nha Trang is also the city where the couple has been together for 2 years. They want to spend this Tet holiday filming many videos about the beauty, cuisine, and people of Nha Trang, introducing them to nearly 900,000 followers. "My daughter Alice has just moved to Ho Chi Minh City to live, so the family is worried, she has difficulty adapting to the cold weather in Hanoi as well as the long distance travel and crowds near Tet. The whole family decided to celebrate Tet a little differently to ensure her health. In 2025, the whole family will definitely return to the North to celebrate Tet," said Son and Sofia.

Sofia was a student at Kiev University (Ukraine). That year, interested in the newly opened Vietnamese Language Department at the university, Sofia registered to study there. In early 2013, Sofia spent 6 months in Vietnam studying as a student exchange student. "Wet behind the ears" in a strange Asian country right before Tet, the Ukrainian female student was "dumbfounded" by the deserted scene, the shops "closed". "I felt very strange. As soon as I arrived in Hanoi, I had no friends to ask about them. Nearly a week after moving into the apartment, I was confused and had difficulty finding personal items and food. Only later did I know that Vietnamese people rest and return to their hometowns to celebrate Tet", Sofia recalled. Although her time studying abroad in Vietnam was not too long, Sofia loved Vietnamese culture very much. In 2014, when she returned to Kiev, through a friend's introduction, Sofia got to know Mr. Son - a Vietnamese guy studying International Relations at the same university. At first meeting, Mr. Son and Ms. Sofia both had good impressions of each other. Ms. Sofia liked the Vietnamese guy because of his thoughtfulness, thoughtfulness, and romance, while Mr. Son was attracted by the clear eyes and pretty appearance of the Ukrainian girl. Knowing that Sofia was studying Vietnamese and wanted to learn about Vietnamese culture, Mr. Son enthusiastically helped her right away. After half a year of getting to know each other, they officially proposed. But from here, the Vietnamese-Ukrainian couple had to have a long-distance relationship. They both studied for a master's degree, but Mr. Son went to Germany to continue studying while Ms. Sofia went to Vietnam. The couple's love was mainly "phone dates, across continents". Thanks to her Vietnamese boyfriend, Ms. Sofia's master's degree study process was much smoother. Mr. Son was like a "private teacher", teaching his girlfriend to speak Vietnamese, about culture, habits, how to cook Vietnamese dishes... In 2018, after 4 years of dating, the couple got married. The couple's wedding was held in both Kiev and Vietnam. In 2019, Mr. Son and Ms. Sofia decided to move to Nha Trang to live and work. “We are a multicultural family, so we love to explore new things and change our living environment. After 2 years in Nha Trang, the whole family moved to Hanoi for 2 years and then moved to Ho Chi Minh City. Maybe we will continue to change to find new inspirations,” the family shared.

The Lunar New Year 2019 was the first time Sofia experienced celebrating the traditional New Year with her husband's family in Vietnam. To blend in with the culture of her husband's homeland, Sofia learned and studied from the smallest things, for example, the habit that before eating, children and grandchildren must invite their grandparents and parents to eat. Son and his wife practiced making some traditional dishes such as bamboo shoot soup and spring rolls so that the eldest daughter-in-law could easily "win over" her husband's extended family. "I remember that Tet holiday, the whole family returned to their hometown, cleaned, cooked, went to buy flowers, and visited relatives. On the first day, the whole family wore beautiful ao dai, went to the temple to pray for luck, the atmosphere was bustling and happy," Sofia said. The first time she tried banh chung, Sofia was a bit hesitant. The foreign bride did not think that the cake, a combination of rice, beans, and pork, would appeal to her. “Unexpectedly, the cake is very soft, fragrant and delicious. Every Tet I gain weight quickly because of eating banh chung,” said Sofia.

The first year she returned to her husband's hometown to celebrate Tet, Sofia was "shocked" because everyone she visited was invited to eat. During the meal, everyone happily asked her foreign niece-in-law questions and served her with dishes like ham, sausage, chicken, etc. "At first, I felt very strange because in my country, people don't serve each other food. But later, I gradually got used to it. I happily accepted and also served everyone delicious food," she said. "In Ukraine, I only celebrate Christmas and New Year. On Tet, people mainly rest with their small families and go out with friends. In Vietnam, Tet is a day for the extended family, relatives gather, the atmosphere is bustling, and the affection is much warmer," the foreign daughter-in-law shared her feelings. Phan Son also said that he was born in Ukraine. When he was 4 years old, he was able to return to Vietnam for the first time to celebrate Tet. Being so excited about the atmosphere of Tet in his homeland, the boy begged his parents to let him stay and live with his grandparents, aunts and uncles. “Because I love Vietnamese Tet, I stayed in Vietnam for 7-8 years. It wasn't until I was in secondary school that I returned to Ukraine,” said Mr. Son. For about 3 years now, Mr. Son and his wife Sofia have had a new job, besides sellingeducational toys, which is sharing their multicultural family life on Tiktok. At first, they considered it a way to entertain and preserve memories of the couple and their baby Alice. However, the videos of the Vietnamese-Ukrainian couple have received a lot of love from the online community, attracting "millions of views" because of Alice's humor and cuteness, and Sofia's diligence and efforts to learn Vietnamese culture. “Now, in addition to sharing memorable moments of the family, my husband and I want to use the Tiktok channel to introduce the culture, cuisine, and beautiful scenery of Vietnam to friends at home and abroad,” said Ms. Sofia. To diversify and enrich the channel's content, the couple has traveled to more places, learning how to cook delicious specialties such as La Vong fish cakes, eel, vermicelli with grilled pork, sour soup, etc. The couple's series of videos "Vietnamese husband buys breakfast for Western wife" has also attracted millions of views. Viewers are delighted to see Sofia enjoy delicious sticky rice, banh day gio, vermicelli with pho, roast duck, etc. "This Tet, my family will film more Tet videos in Nha Trang, introducing everyone to the beautiful scenery of the coastal city and our family's Tet activities such as Sofia cooking Vietnamese dishes with her mother-in-law, Alice wearing ao dai, wishing grandparents a happy new year and receiving lucky money...", the couple shared. "The most wonderful thing in the traditional Tet culture of Vietnamese people is family affection. We want to spread that so that everyone can feel some of the warmth and happiness," Sofia shared. Article: Linh Trang - Design: Nguyen Ngoc Vietnamnet.vn Source