Vietnam - Japan Traditional New Year Culinary Exchange

On the Lantern Festival (the Full Moon of the First Lunar Month) more than 15 years ago, the most “pure Hue native” friend I know, architect Nguyen Trong Huan, and I put on thin raincoats and walked together through the light, drifting drizzle to search for Hue’s culinary specialties. Having lived in this city for many years, Huan still longed for the flavors he once tasted.

On February 2, the Command of Hue City Border Guard welcomed a delegation from Sekong Provincial Police of Lao People’s Democratic Republic, led by Colonel Khamkhang Thongsa Vat, Deputy Director of Sekong Provincial Police, on a Tet courtesy visit on the occasion of Vietnam’s traditional Binh Ngo Lunar New Year 2026.

In Hue, the traditional Lunar New Year “Tet” does not arrive with fanfare. It begins quietly in the kitchen, from a pot of banh tet (a cylindrical sticky rice cake with mung beans and pork) glowing over the fire, from the warm scent of ginger, from a jar of mixed pickled vegetables. Just by looking at these dishes, people in Hue know that Tet is very near.

On the afternoon of January 8, a delegation from the Salavan Provincial People’s Council, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, led by Mr. Siheang Homsombat, Head of the National Assembly Delegation for Constituency No. 14, and Chairman of the Salavan Provincial People's Council, visited and extended Lunar New Year greetings for the Year of the Horse to Hue City.

That was the theme of the First National Scientific Conference for Law Students in 2025, held by the network of Law Training Institutions in Vietnam, in collaboration with the University of Law, Hue University; Hanoi Law University, and Ho Chi Minh University of Industry and Trade on December 19.