Spreading Tet cultural values to students
(Baonghean.vn) - Tet markets and Spring-themed display corners are a Vietnamese Tet experience for students in the days leading up to the new year. This activity is also being implemented by schools in these days.
Vietnamese Tet with international students
The Banh Chung wrapping and cooking festival of Boarding High School No. 2 lasted for 2 days and took place right on the last days of the Year of the Cat.
Participating in the program, in addition to more than 700 ethnic minority students, there are also 31Laotian studentsare studying at the school and officers and soldiers from the 654th Transport Brigade, Logistics Department of Military Region IV, the school's sister unit. In addition to the traditional exchange program, the transport soldiers are also teachers guiding students to cook and wrap Chung cakes according to the traditional Vietnamese New Year customs.
Before the festival of wrapping and cooking banh chung began, Souklthida, a Laotian student from Savanakhet province, had time to go online to learn about Vietnamese Tet. This was also one of the contents of the Vietnamese language homework that the teachers at school had assigned to the class, to help students better understand Vietnamese customs and practices.
The first time Souklthida got acquainted with the concept of “banh chung” and “banh tet”, she was quite confused because she had never eaten or seen a real cake outside. But after an afternoon of experiencing and being guided by the soldiers of the 654th Transport Brigade, this female student was really happy.
“Laos’ Tet mainly involves water splashing and there is hardly any typical cake. However, banh chung and banh tet are closely associated with Vietnamese Tet and are indispensable to every family. Today, I wrapped a banh chung myself and am looking forward to my first success.”
Before coming to Vietnam to study at the Ethnic Boarding High School No. 2, Soullthida was quite shy, could not speak Vietnamese and was worried that she would not be able to integrate into the new environment.
The girl also did not believe that, after only 3 months of studying Vietnamese, she could communicate fluently and become one of the best international students in the class. During the days of studying and experiencing the life of the people of Nghe An, Soulthida said that she loved this land and loved the way Vietnamese people celebrate Tet. Her love was also passed on to her parents and before the 2-week Tet holiday, her whole family will go to Vietnam to experience the taste of Tet in Nghe An.
Boarding High School No. 2 has more than 90% of students who are ethnic minorities from 10 mountainous districts of the province. With their own characteristics, each student coming to the school brings with them their own customs, habits, and culture. The multicultural and multi-ethnic environment is also clearly reflected in the Party-Spring celebration with a campfire night, a competition to cook Tet meals of ethnic minorities, making traditional cakes, and performing arts.
Mr. Mai Van Dat - Secretary of the School Youth Union said: "We aim at traditional cultural values in the activities to welcome Spring and celebrate the traditional Tet of the nation. Through that, we not only strengthen solidarity and cohesion but also help students understand more about the traditional beauty of the Vietnamese people, and the cultural diversity of the ethnic groups in Nghe An."
Preserving traditional values
Since mid-December of the lunar calendar, schools across the province have organized many activities to welcome the new year 2024. This year, one of the main themes implemented by schools is the traditional Tet of the nation with Spring markets and display corners to remind people of theOld Tet.
The traditional Tet holiday of the nation also has profound humanistic values as this is an occasion for schools, teachers and students to care for poor students and those in difficult circumstances, showing mutual love and affection so that everyone can have a full and happy Tet holiday.
At Cua Nam 1 Primary School (Vinh city), the program to celebrate Tet was extended with a series of meaningful activities. Among them, the festival "Warm Spring - Loving Tet" was organized for all students of the school to learn about the origin of the national Tet and give Tet gifts to poor students who have overcome difficulties.
Nearly a month before Tet, teachers and students of the school organized activities of drawing pictures and writing handwritten letters to send the best wishes to parents and grandparents on the occasion of the New Year. In January, the school's Youth Union also organized a flag-raising ceremony with the theme "Welcome Spring 2024" including many performances imbued with the colors of Spring by grade 3 students.
In particular, implementing the professional plan for the 2023-2024 school year, in the last week of the old year, during the Local Education class for grade 5, the school organized a connecting lesson with Binh Chuan Primary School (Con Cuong) and Quynh Nghia Primary School (Quynh Luu) with the topic "Traditional Vietnamese New Year". In this lesson, through online format, students of the 3 schools learned about traditional New Year customs, performed a play about the story of Chung cake and Day cake and shared about the local New Year, the New Year of people living abroad; they also experienced making cards, decorating peach branches, and writing New Year parallel sentences.
“Although our school is located in the city center, there are many students in difficult circumstances, including 35 students in extremely difficult circumstances. Therefore, during this Tet holiday, we have coordinated with the parents’ association and local philanthropists to donate warm spring gifts to students and their families.
In addition to implementing mutual love and support activities, we also consider Tet as a meaningful occasion to educate students about traditional values of the nation. Therefore, the series of activities to welcome Spring not only includes decorations and displays according to thematic themes in each classroom and on the school campus, but also are integrated into lessons and experiential activities. These activities have received the enthusiastic participation of many students and parents.
Experiential activities about the traditional Tet holiday of the nation are also an opportunity for students to demonstrate their talent, ingenuity, creativity and express the very unique concepts and perspectives of today's young generation on the Tet holiday of their homeland.
Coming to the Vietnamese Tet Festival of Bac Yen Thanh High School, in addition to the amount of nearly 27 million VND that the whole school donated to support poor students, the students of the school also participated in many meaningful activities. Among them, one of the special programs is the calligraphy contest and the experience of being a Nghe scholar.
Teacher Nguyen Ba Thuy - Principal of the school shared: "Tet Festival is an annual activity of the school and the students really enjoy it. Therefore, every year, we always try to innovate the program and incorporate into it the good traditional cultural values of the nation. Through what the students have shown, I believe that, no matter what stage, no matter what age, Vietnamese Tet still has its own value for students and in many ways they can still express their love for their homeland's culture, there are still ways to preserve, conserve and promote".
The students’ response to Tet festivals and Tet markets has also revived the traditional Tet of the Vietnamese people. Through this, students once again learn to appreciate the past and cultivate and enrich the traditional culture and family values of the Vietnamese people.
