"First Morning" Festival
On January 29, when the exams period finally came to an end and the winter break began, the Vietnamese students of Tula State University and Tula State Pedagogical University named after L.N. Tolstoy gathered together to celebrate the Vietnamese New Year - Tet.
This year, the traditional holiday Tet or Tet Nguyen Dan, which is translated into Russian as "First Morning" Festival, fell on the period from January 22 to 24 and coincided with the exams period in both universities. And only today, on the first weekend, the friendly community of Tula students from Vietnam managed to get together as a single student family and organize a joint holiday full of fun, traditional treats and warm greetings.
The organizers of the Vietnamese New Year's meeting were the Union of Communist Youth and the Representation of Vietnamese students in Tula State University, where 60 citizens of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam are currently studying.
The program of the event was eventful: a fair of traditional Vietnamese delicacies, team games, a small concert of creative performances from Vietnamese students.
The decoration of the hall where the Vietnamese New Year's meeting was held deserves a special mentioning: a bright red banner with traditional motives of the New Year according to the lunisolar calendar, images of the “water rabbit” - the symbol of 2023. According to the 12-year cycle of the Oriental calendar, an attractive photo zone, decorated with peach tree blossoms, is the main symbol of the "First Morning" Festival.
At the beginning of the Vietnamese New Year's meeting, the director of Institute of International Education of Tula State University Olga Dmitrievna Gladkova, the deputy director of Institute of International Education of Tula State University Tamara Dmitrievna Kartashova, and the chairman of the student council of the international faculty of ula State Pedagogical University named after L.N. Tolstoy, 2nd year master student Zoya Olegovna Ovchinnikova addressed all the participants of the event with welcoming speeches.
Wishing all those present health, well-being, and prosperity in the new year, the director of nstitute of International Education of Tula State University noted that this is invariably one of the favorite holidays at university, and the friendly Vietnamese community never ceases to surprise us with something new every year.
And this time there was something to be surprised - there were neither traditional Vietnamese delicacies nor the traditional New Year's Banthung cake on the table of the festive fair. Instead, they had delicious rice chips, pork skewers, crispy pork ears, Vietnamese milk tea with jelly chunks, and even a rice paper salad. Tran Phuong Anh, a student of Tula State University, spoke about all the subtleties of the program of rare Vetman dishes.
The mini-concert of creative numbers showed that the Vietnamese students took responsibility for organizing this event. What if only team games, among the favorites of which were competitions in accuracy. Two teams threw darts at balloons attached to the wall. Energy, youth, excitement... and, finally, friendship won! By the way, representatives of the directorate of Institute of International Education of Tula State University simply could not stand aside and enthusiastically threw darts as part of student teams.
Quite touching words were said at the end of the holiday by the Vietnamese student of Tula State University Nguyen Thi Thu Ha: “I am graduating from the university this year, and it is a very strange feeling to realize that this is my last tet here. Because we are family."
