Belgian television makes reportage on Vietnamese Lunar New Year celebration

Belgium’s French-language television channel BX1 has broadcasted a reportage entitled "Vietnamese people celebrate Tet in Woluwe Saint-Pierre" about the Lunar New Year (Tet) that the Vietnamese Association in Belgium and the Vietnamese Embassy in Belgium organised in Brussels on January 22.
Vietnamese Ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg Nguyen Van Thao delivers a speech at the Tet celebration ceremony on January 22. (Photo: Huong Giang/Vietnam+)
Vietnamese Ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg Nguyen Van Thao delivers a speech at the Tet celebration ceremony on January 22. (Photo: Huong Giang/Vietnam+)

The reportage said that about 400 Vietnamese people attended the traditional Tet festival in Woluwe Saint-Pierre district where not only Vietnamese people but also Belgians said to each other “Chuc mung Nam moi” (Happy New Year).

Visitors to the festival had a chance to enjoy Vietnamese traditional foods and fruits, particularly grapefruit - an indispensable fruit during Tet celebrations.

The channel’s reporter introduced “banh mi” (Vietnamese bread) - a specialty whose name is included in the Oxford Dictionary.

The festival was decorated with parallel sentences or calligraphy brought from Vietnam.

According to the reportage, hanging calligraphy is an indispensable decoration in the houses of Vietnamese people during Tet. To write calligraphy, one must learn for many years, and calligraphers look like performing martial arts when writing.

Besides, the Tet festival included a peformance by an art troupe from Ho Chi Minh City. The reportage emphasised that about 5,000 Vietnamese people are living in Brussels and that the Tet festival will take place for 15 days starting on January 22 which marks the first day of the Lunar Year of the Cat.

VNA