Vietnamese expats join activities to celebrate Tet
The Consulate General of Vietnam in Sydney, Australia, organised a golf tournament on February 2, on the occasion of the Tet (Lunar New Year) festival, with the participation of nearly 70 golfers.
Addressing the event, Vietnamese Consul General Nguyen Dang Thang wished that the ‘Tet Cup’ golf tournament, which is hoped to be held annually on the occasion of the biggest and most important traditional festival of Vietnamese, will strengthen solidarity among the Vietnamese community in Australia and raise funds to build schools for children residing in the country’s mountainous areas.
This time, the Consulate General together with a charity in Vietnam aimed to raise funds for the building of a semi-boarding house of Chieng Chung primary and secondary school in the northern mountainous province of Son La.
The tournament raised some AUD30,900 (US$22,010), which will be transferred to the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry's State Commission for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs, for the prompt construction of the boarding house.
In Sri Lanka, a delegation of the Embassy of Vietnam led by Ambassador Ho Thi Thanh Truc paid a Tet visit to Vietnamese expats in the country on February 2, the second day of the lunar new year.
Truc extended her Tet wishes to Buddhist monks and nuns living and studying in Sri Lanka and thanked nun Giac Hanh Chau for supporting the Vietnamese Embassy and the Vietnamese community in the South Asian nation.
About 50 Vietnamese monks and nuns are studying at Buddhist schools and institutes in Sri Lanka.
Earlier, Vietnamese Counsellor Tran Trong Thanh visited a meditation centre in Kandy city, which is the first Vietnamese temple in Sri Lanka. The temple had helped disadvantaged families when the country applied restriction measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Also on February 2, Chu Duc Dung, Vietnamese Consul General in Khon Kaen, Thailand, extended his Tet wishes to overseas Vietnamese in Thailand’s north eastern localities.
He welcomed contributions by the Vietnamese community in Udon Thani to the Vietnam-Thailand relations as well as their activities toward the homeland.
He took the occasion to attend a ritual praying for peace and offer incense to altars of Hung Kings, the national founders, at Khanh An, the largest Vietnamese temple in north eastern Thailand; and paid tribute to late President Ho Chi Minh at a memorial site in the Thai province, where he stayed and worked for a while in 1928-29.
Udon Thani is currently home to the largest number of Vietnamese among Thai localities.
