HSE Vietnamese Students Celebrating Lunar New Year 'Tet'

The Lunar New Year, or Tet holiday, is the most important and largest festival of the year in Vietnam. It is when the Vietnamese express their respects for their ancestors and welcome the lunar New Year with family members. The date of Tet is decided by the lunar calendar; this year, it began on Friday, February 16, and lasts until next weekend. 2018 is known as the year of the Golden Dog.

Today, Tet is celebrated not only in Vietnam, but also by the Vietnamese community around the world. In Russia, Vietnamese students at HSE are no exception. Since their families are far from Moscow, they now consider all their friends here to be their new family. Vietnamese students get together to enjoy big meals with traditional foods, such as ‘nem’, which are spring rolls, and ‘banh chung’, which are sticky rice cakes. They also show off their talents with cultural performances and dance competitions.

‘This is the first time I have welcomed Tet without my family,’ said Nguyen Hoang Linh Trang, a student in the PreYear Faculty. ‘I was homesick, but I got together with other friends here at HSE and celebrated Tet as a big family. They made me be very happy and gave me unforgettable memories as a student in this beautiful Russia.’

Vietnamese students at HSE also made an impressive music video as a New Year present to everyone. The video was uploaded to the Facebook page “Trường Kinh tế cao cấp - HSE University” and went viral with thousands of views and shares. The university’s Vietnamese students wish everyone a prosperous and happy new year ahead and are already looking forward to organizing the ‘Vietnamese Tet Festival’ at the HSE Moscow campus for both Russian and international students next year.

The music video made by HSE Vietnamese students can be found at

https://www.facebook.com/HSE.Vietnam.info/videos/312474112607936/