No Tet holiday is as joyful as a family reunion.

For Nhu Mai, a second-year restaurant management student in Bavaria, Germany, Tet (Vietnamese Lunar New Year) is a meaningful time, a time when all family members gather together to welcome the new year with wishes for good fortune and success. “In Germany, there’s no Lunar New Year holiday, so we still go to school and work. During breaks, we call home to wish our families and friends a Happy New Year and use the time to cook Vietnamese dishes together. At those times, everyone gathers to cook, share stories, and ease homesickness, also reassuring our families that no matter where we are, we always have our compatriots and that Tet is always celebrated,” Nhu Mai shared.

Putting aside their homesickness for a moment, each international student happily enjoyed the time spent together.

As for Do Tra Giang, a third-year information security student at the Moscow Energy Institute (Russian Federal National Research University), every Tet holiday, she and her fellow international students gather to go to the market to buy ingredients for making banh chung (traditional Vietnamese rice cakes). They also "show off" their cooking skills by preparing traditional Vietnamese Tet dishes such as braised pork and fried spring rolls to prepare for the New Year's Eve dinner and welcome the new year.

Even when living far from home, Tet (Vietnamese New Year) is still celebrated with traditional rice cakes like banh chung, banh tet, and banh giay.

“When I called home to wish everyone a Happy New Year and saw them, I missed my parents so much. I just wanted to fly back to Vietnam to hug them. But the more I missed home, the more determined I became to do well in my university program so as not to disappoint my family,” Tra Giang confided.

Also at the Moscow Institute of Energy, Tran Quoc Thinh is a second-year postgraduate student. During his eight years studying abroad, he has spent seven Lunar New Year holidays away from home. Despite celebrating Tet far from home, Thinh still makes sure to prepare traditional Vietnamese dishes like spring rolls, sticky rice cakes, jams, and fruits, just like in Vietnam. “Every year, the student group at the university prepares a Tet celebration program so everyone can gather, eat, and chat together. Celebrating Tet away from home for international students evokes feelings of homesickness and longing for the Tet atmosphere of their homeland. For Thinh, seeing his family healthy is the greatest happiness.”

These square, plump rice cakes (bánh chưng and bánh tét) carry the heartfelt emotions of those who are far from home.

In foreign lands, they still meticulously prepare to celebrate the traditional Vietnamese Lunar New Year according to Vietnamese customs and traditions. There are still year-end parties with a variety of Vietnamese dishes, but the taste of Tet is truly unique. Each person harbors emotions and memories that are difficult to put into words. And even though they cannot return home, these people far from their homeland still contribute to preserving, promoting, and spreading Vietnamese culture and identity to friends around the world ; even though Tet is far away, it is still imbued with love and affection.

For Le Thi Mai, a business administration student at Seizu Senmon Gakko (Japan), celebrating Tet (Lunar New Year) away from home for three years has been a deeply emotional and unforgettable experience. Each time she makes a video call to wish her family a Happy New Year, Mai gets emotional and cries, but this has become a habit for her while living far from home.

The year-end party for the Lunar New Year 2022 (Year of the Tiger) of Vietnamese students studying in the Russian Federation.

“Every New Year's Eve, I video call Vietnam, listening to the lively Tet music, the cheers and greetings, and feeling the Tet atmosphere from Vietnam… Every time I do this, I cry, but I absolutely have to see people celebrating Tet to feel at ease. Japan doesn't celebrate Lunar New Year like Vietnam, but my school still gives international students a week off. I've never had that many days off for Tet; I only celebrate 1-2 days with friends and go on spring outings, and I work part-time for the rest of the time to earn extra income,” Le Thi Mai shared.

International students enjoy the Lunar New Year cultural performance night of 2019.

As for Ms. Nguyen Thu Lam, after more than three years working in Taiwan (China), she constantly misses her daughter and relatives back home. Especially during the Lunar New Year, her homesickness intensifies. Ms. Lam remembers the excitement of shopping for home decorations, buying clothes for her daughter, and the New Year's Eve feasts… From afar, Ms. Lam can only express her thoughts and feelings through phone calls.

These small community gatherings make the Lunar New Year feel closer to home for young people.

“On New Year's Eve, my roommates and I gather together to eat and chat. But every year, after a while, everyone gets up and goes to a corner to call their relatives in Vietnam. These calls last for hours, asking about each other's health, how everyone is preparing for Tet, and wishing each other a Happy New Year… Although we decorate for Tet here just like in Vietnam, I only truly feel the Tet atmosphere when I call home and talk to my loved ones,” Lam confided.