International students use apple branches instead of peach branches to celebrate Tet

"Everyone took turns cutting apple branches a month before New Year's Eve, then made flowers out of colored paper and pasted them into peach branches to celebrate Tet," Nguyen Thanh Hai, a student studying abroad in Russia, shared.

I have celebrated the third Tet away from home, and it doesn't feel the same as the first year. I still remember the first time I celebrated New Year's Eve in a foreign land, missing home, missing my parents, missing the Tet atmosphere in Vietnam.

After experiencing that first Tet, the feelings in the following seasons were a bit different. There was still nostalgia, still a feeling of emptiness when in Vietnam everyone was eagerly celebrating Tet, while here it was just a normal day. Three years have passed, I have gradually gotten used to the new environment and life.

Vietnamese students in Russia welcome the New Year together. Photo: Thanh Hai.

The atmosphere of Tet here is also very different from that at home. Here, before Tet, we also celebrate the New Year with the local people. At this time, international students here have finished their exams. Everyone is eagerly planning to celebrate Tet in the warmest and happiest way.

We don’t have peach trees or apricot branches like at home, so we use apple branches instead. Everyone takes turns cutting apple branches a month before New Year’s Eve, then makes flowers out of colored paper and pastes them on. Necessary things to welcome New Year’s Eve are also carefully prepared, such as fruit trays, parallel sentences, lucky money envelopes, and a meal with dishes from different regions.

From bamboo shoot soup with pig's feet, to the offering chicken, to the full plate of sticky rice. The most important is the indispensable dish - banh chung - wrapped and boiled by the international students themselves.

The moments of looking after the cakes are the time for everyone to share their feelings. Stories about the Tet customs of different regions that not everyone knows. Young people far from home share their memories of Tet at home. Games and funny stories help everyone laugh and talk happily, easing the sadness of being away from home.

Tet away from home is sad and disappointing, but there are new emotions that only international students can feel. Not being able to be with my family is a disadvantage, but looking around, I have friends, fellow countrymen, and juniors in the same situation.

There were times when I wanted to buy a plane ticket and run home to be with my parents, ignoring my studies, my work, and my life in that strange country. But we had already set off, and had accepted to face things that were even more difficult than missing them.

According to Zing.vn