According to Ms. Tran Thi Hoang Phuong, a lecturer in the Taiwan’s National Chengchi University, who has spent nearly 20 years in Taipei, the Lunar New Year is celebrated in Vietnam and Taiwan (China). However, most people in Taipei enjoy the lunar New Year simply because they are too busy. All the members of family will gather around dinner table on December 30 of the Lunar calendar then they will travel for the year-end holidays, both at home or abroad.
Vietnamese migrant brides in Taiwan will gather in a small parties featuring Vietnamese traditional dishes on Tet holidays, such as banh chung (square glutinous-rice cake), banh tet (cylindrical glutinous rice cake), thit kho trung (caramelized braised pork belly and eggs with coconut juice) and others.
Chosen as head of the immigrant committee in Taiwan (the Democratic Progressive Party’s new immigrant committee-DPP), chairwoman Tran Thi Hoang Phuong is improving and promoting management policies and social welfares for migrants in Taiwan.
Vietnamese owner of a restaurant in Hsinchu, Ngoc Van has lived in Taiwan for 17 years. Whenever Tet holiday comes, she has feelings of missing her homeland where there are always be-loved relatives expecting her to come home for reunion in the lunar New Year.
The lunar New Year atmosphere in Taiwan is similar to Vietnam. Traditional market areas are bustling shoppers, she said.
The Tat Nien meal, the dinner is also the most delicious meal of the year with a wide variety of Vietnamese and Taiwanese traditional foods. During the last meal of the year , family members recall what everyone has done it the past year, share stories and wish a Happy New Year. Van and her family often go to the pagoda on the first day of the lunar New Year to pray for a happy new year with full of wishes may come true, she added.
