Traditional festivals of welcoming Tet and Spring have long become one of the typical cultural beauties of Vietnam. At Schools under RT Holdings, the festive atmosphere of the holiday season will be vividly and brilliantly recreated during the Spring Festival 2024 through exciting and unique activities. Let’s take a tour around the surrounding campuses and see what WASS, PennSchool, and SISS have been preparing to welcome the beginning of the Year of the Dragon.
To kick-off a series of events celebrating the arrival of Spring, the students of WASS Kindergarten had the opportunity to bond and celebrate with a series of exciting activities during the Spring Festival with the theme “Spring Vibes: Tet Glamping & Cultural Experiences,” held on January 26 and 27, 2024. At the event, the students lively performances and impressive fashion shows. Moreover, they greatly enjoyed decorating the school area into a tiny “kingdom” with many enchanting tents and engaging in team-building games. Particularly, the two-day camping activity included moments where they relished a lavish buffet with traditional Tet dishes, gathered around the campfire, and relaxed with activities like “Spa Time,” “Pyjama Party,” and “Movie Night.”
Immersed in the festive and exciting atmosphere created by these little WASSers, the Primary and Secondary students of WASS, PennSchool, and SISS will welcome the Spring Festival on February 1 and 2, 2024.
At WASS, aiming to provide a meaningful playground for students to interact and explore the cultural beauty of traditional Tet celebrations, as well as discover Tet customs from all three regions of the country, WASS will organize the Spring Festival with many fun activities and games. The School encourages students to dress in traditional Tet clothes such as “Ao Dai”, “Ao Ba Ba – South Vietnamese pajama”, four-panel traditional dress or modern “Ao Dai” when participating in the festival. At the event, students will immerse themselves in the traditional cultural setting and take part in folk games adapted from the three regions, which include decorating pottery pigs, creating written calligraphy, and making apricot blossom trees, or engage in more interesting activities such as decorating and eat with their classmates. Notably, on January 24, each class personally made and decorated the Golden Wattle tree – Australia’s national flower, with distinctive features that bring symbolic meaning, similar to the yellow apricot tree in Vietnam. Each class’ artwork will be exhibited and the results of the winning artworks will be announced during the Spring Festival at WASS.
In the joy and anticipation of the big event, PennSchool will organize a Spring Festival with the theme “Spring Fiesta 2024: Blooming Joy, Dancing Prosperity” on February 2, 2024, for all students. The special highlight of this year’s festival is undoubtedly the contest of decorating a large dragon – the Asian symbol and the Year of the Dragon – along with the five-fruit tray, a traditional feature of Vietnamese Tet. After completing their creations, the students will parade on stage and showcase their five-fruit tray for the judges to evaluate. The class with the highest score in the dragon design and five-fruit tray contest will receive special prizes from the School. Additionally, the #HomesOfTheEagles will enjoy lively musical performances imbued with the spirit of Tet and then gather to play puzzle games together. Alongside that, an amazing magic performance and an entertaining lottery game will add more enjoyment to the students’ festival. Moreover, in the Visual Art lesson prior to the festival, students will be guided by the teachers to create written calligraphy and make 3D cards to give to their families on the New Year.
In 2024, it will perhaps be a particularly memorable year for the SISS as students join the Spring Festival for the first time with their teachers and friends. On February 1, 2024, with the theme “Embracing Love”, SISS students will have the opportunity to learn about the traditional Tet activities and modern Tet games through lively activities such as bamboo jumping, sack race, “O An Quan” (a traditional Vietnamese game), blindfolded beating, “to he” and other activities. Besides, the students will participate in traditional Tet activities such as making lucky money envelopes and wrapping Chung cakes. Additionally, experiential activities such as guessing the names of hidden objects game, testing quick thinking and agility with the game of picking candy-filled bird eggs using bamboo chopsticks will bring an incredibly lively atmosphere to the SISS student and teacher community.
With a variety of rich and diverse experiential activities, the Spring Festival – Year of the Dragon – promises to bring unique experiences and values to the students. The event not only offers an opportunity for students to preserve beautiful memories with teachers and friends before the Lunar New Year comes but also allows them to develop a deeper love for the traditions and customs of the Vietnamese people during Tet, spanning millennia.
