The flavor of the lunar New Year (Tet) and the image of their families are always deeply engraved in their minds as a source of spiritual encouragement for those who study far from home to strive and exert efforts to excellently complete their study and training tasks overseas.
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Vietnamese cadets studying in Russia play football on the occasion of the lunar New Year holiday of Vietnam. |
In Russia, the current cold and snowy weather condition significantly affects Vietnamese cadets’ training and daily activities. However, as Secretary of the Youth Union Organization, Staff Sergeant Ngo Dang Quang, a cadet of the Military Technical Academy studying in Saint Petersburg, still rushed to the Vietnamese market to buy banh chung (traditional square sticky rice cakes of Vietnam) and other ingredients for Tet meals. Quang has studied in Russia for four years, so he has a lot of experience in preparing Vietnamese Tet meals.
Quang said that due to the nature of the military training program and the long distance, Vietnamese cadets here did not return to the Fatherland during the Tet holiday. However, the instructors here created conditions for them to organize meetings, parties, and football matches. “On the New Year's Eve, we ate banh chung and candied fruit together, played lucky money drawing, and talked about the memories of celebrating Tet at our former units. The nostalgia made the comradeship even stronger,” Quang said.
Studying at another military academy in Saint Petersburg, Staff Sergeant Ho Duy Anh, who is also a cadet of the Military Technical Academy, share that he had four years celebrating Tet away from home. Every Tet, his comrades and he watched the Tao Quan program, listening to the State President's lunar New Year greetings on television at the moment of New Year's Eve. For Duy Anh, that was a very sacred moment, stirring up national pride.
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International cadets congratulate Vietnamese peers on the Tet holiday. |
He recalled his first year welcoming Tet in the unit in Vietnam. At that time, both officers and students were busy planting flowers, decorating, making wall newspapers, joining artistic competitions in celebration of the Party’s foundation and the new spring. In four years celebrating Tet in Russia, they always turned their hearts toward the homeland in the new spring to have more faith and motivation to strive to complete the training program excellently.
These Vietnamese cadets in Russia wished their families, relatives, and comrades at home a joyful New Year with good start. These future military technicians expressed their hope that they would early complete their training program to return home to contribute to the development of the homeland and the military.
Translated by Mai Huong