Lunar New Year get-togethers held for overseas Vietnamese

The Embassy of Vietnam in Ukraine on January 28 held a get-together for the Vietnamese community in the European country on the threshold of the Tet (Lunar New Year) festival.

The get-together of the Vietnamese community in Ukraine (Photo: VNA)
The get-together of the Vietnamese community in Ukraine (Photo: VNA)

Addressing the event, Ambassador to Ukraine Nguyen Hong Thach extended his Tet wishes to the expatriates.

He pledged that the embassy will roll out activities aiming to promote images of Vietnam’s landscapes and people in the coming time, as well as commemorate the 30th founding anniversary and strengthen the bilateral diplomatic ties.

The diplomat emphasised that a space featuring Vietnamese nature and culture built within the Ukraine National Botanical Garden (NBG) in Kiev capital city, together with Truc Lam Pagoda in Kharkov city, will be locations that help introduce Vietnamese culture to Ukrainian friends.

Traditional dishes were served at the event.

In Malaysia, a liaison board of OVs in Johor state arranged an event to make banh chung (square glutinous rice cake), a traditional food of Vietnamese people during Tet, on January 25-28.

Head of the board Nguyen Nhu Hao said with support from the Vietnamese Embassy, philanthropists and charity groups, more than 1,000 chung cakes were made and presented to Vietnamese living and working in Johor and neighbouring areas.

The embassy and the liaison board paid Tet visits to firms having a large number of Vietnamese workers in Johor.

The Vietnamese community in the Klang Valley comprising Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Putrajaya presented chung cakes and Tet gifts to 50 disadvantaged OVs in Selangor. Of note, they made cakes meeting ‘halal’ standards which can be served to Muslims.