During the days before Lunar New Year, the Vietnamese engineering team in Abyei (Africa) erected a pole about 18m high at the barracks and welcomed international friends to join in the fun.

The pole is made from two well-drilled water pipes, decorated with many eye-catching colors and attached with LED lights. On top of the pole is decorated with a 2m high five-pointed star and the Vietnamese flag and the United Nations flag. At night, the LED lights make the pole and the Vietnamese national flag stand out.

The Lunar New Year of Giap Thin 2024 is also an opportunity to promote traditional Vietnamese dishes to international friends, including Banh Chung.

The Vietnamese engineering team invited international friends to enjoy traditional Vietnamese Tet dishes, told them about the story of banh chung and banh giay, and guided them through the experience of wrapping banh chung and taking home a cake they had wrapped themselves.

During Tet, the Team also organizes volleyball, table tennis, and banh chung wrapping competitions between teams in the unit to create a vibrant, joyful atmosphere to welcome spring.

This year is the first year the United Nations has recognized Lunar New Year as a major public holiday. This is the international community's recognition of traditional East Asian culture, and at the same time an opportunity for the Vietnamese Engineering Corps to exchange culture with international friends.