Warm National Day of overseas Hai Duong people

The Vietnamese community in Odessa city (Ukraine) organized musical and football exchanges on previous National Day occasions (file photo provided by Le Thai Ky, a Vietnamese living in Ukraine)

It is similar to each Hai Duong native who is living and working abroad as in their hearts, National Day always has a special meaning – their motherland is always by their side.

Pride in Vietnam

Near every National Day, Duong Van Hung, a native of Sao Do ward, Chi Linh city, currently living and working in Sweden, hangs the Vietnamese national flag in front of his house with his children.

"I hang the national flag on every National Day occasion to remember my homeland and remind my children to turn to their origin," said Hung.

To Vietnamese workers in Japan, their motherland's National Day is still sacred though they cannot be off work.

Nguyen Van Nhat, a worker in Japan from Nhat Tan commune, Gia Loc district, said: "Some fellow-countrymen often gather for an intimate meal on National Day."

"We could not meet each other two years ago because of the Covid-19 pandemic but early made an appointment this year.

"My wife has planned to cook banh chung (square glutinous rice cake) and buy ingredients to make banh da nem (fried rice crepe) and several traditional Vietnamese dishes to treat our Japanese friends at work.

"This is also an opportunity for us to proudly introduce the Vietnamese cuisine."

A cozy National Day atmosphere is always a hope and desire of every Vietnamese currently living in Ukraine. In the country torn by conflicts, Vietnamese people love and appreciate the peaceful and independent atmosphere in their homeland more.

Hoang Dinh Chai, a native of Pham Tran commune, Gia Loc district, presently living in the capital city of Kiev, said: "In previous years, the embassy gave a formal National Day reception. In many cities, Vietnamese communities held football tournaments, cultural exchanges, and performances of traditional Vietnamese musical instruments.”

“This year, due to the complicated conflict situation, we cannot organize as many celebrations as in previous years, but we have agreed to hold a small party to celebrate National Day on a peaceful day in Kiev.”

Turning to homeland

This year’s National Day is very special for Vietnamese expatriates. Nguyen Ngoc Nhu from Tran Phu ward, Hai Duong city, a 4th-year student of Loughborough University (the UK), excitedly boasted: “Since the pandemic is no longer tense, I will definitely go to the Vietnamese Embassy in the UK by bus to celebrate the 77th National Day.”

“In previous years, apart from a musical show co-organized by the embassy and the community, there were interesting talks of war veterans.”

The Vietnamese community in Sweden always follows the Hai Duong Newspaper’s fanpage and some other local information pages to seek investment opportunities in the province as well as recommend their friends to open factories in their native land.

Nguyen Thanh Hung, owner of a business in Sweden, said that a lot of enterprises in Nordic countries had paid attention to strong investment attraction policies of Hai Duong over the past time.

Last July, several Swedish businesses surveyed locations for investment in car accessory production.

Far from home, but they are always ready to make connections so that many enterprises will invest in the province.

BAO ANH