Bonsai kumquat pots in the shape of a typical communal house in rural Vietnam or an ancient house in Hanoi's Old Quarter are selling well this Lunar New Year season.

B: Over the past week, we have received many greetings for our biggest festival of the year – Tet.

A: Shivendu Paul of India wrote: “Happy Lunar New Year and Tet Festival 2022. Best wishes to all Vietnamese people and all staff and listeners of Voice of Vietnam.  Thank you very much for reading my letters and answering my questions on the popular Letter Box program. On February 1 and 2, 2022,  I listened to special programs for Vietnam’s Lunar New Year. The beautiful songs, stories, customs and talks about the traditional new year were very nice and interesting.”

Paintings of the tiger encapsulate painter Nguyen Doan Ninh’s wishes for a year full of fierce strength with calmer emotions.

B: Mr. Paul continued: “ 2022 is the year of the Tiger. The Tiger is the national animal of India.  The magnificent Royal Bengal Tiger whose scientific name is panthera tigris is an animal with a thick yellow coat of fur with dark stripes. The Bengal Tiger was declared the National Animal of India in April 1973. Sundarban is famous around the world for its Royal Bengal tigers. Sundarban is a mangrove area in the delta formed by the confluence of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers in the Bay of Bengal. Sundarban National Park is a Tiger Reserve and a Biosphere Reserve in West Bengal, India.”

A: Thank you very much, Mr. Shivendu Paul for telling us about the importance of Tigers in India.

B: This week we received an email from Gerry Neumann, one of VOV’s long time listeners. He wrote: “With the ongoing Covid pandemic I find it difficult to maintain my listening habit as before, although I make an effort to go online to keep up to date with VOV whenever I can.

Once again I’ve been unable to be in Vietnam for Tet  (or at any other time, for almost 3 years) so I miss hearing and saying the customary Chúc Mừng Năm Mới , but at least I can wish that to all the staff of VOV by sending you this email.

I hope that the Year of the Tiger will be a happy and successful one for all of you at VOV, as well as for all your listeners around the world. Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to be able to come to Vietnam (and of course 45 Ba Trieu) sometime in the distant future. “

A: Gerry, thank you very much for your New Year greetings. We all hope that the pandemic will soon be contained and international flights will resume so we can see you very again. We wish you all the best of health, luck, and happiness in the New Year. Chuc mung nam moi.

B: This week we received a lot of reception reports on our broadcasts on the frequency of 11885 khz. Many were from first time listeners.

A: Daniel Rodrigo Troncoso Murillo of Colombia listened to our program from 21:30 to 22:00 UTC on January 31 on the frequency of 11885 khz and rated SINPO all 3s. He wrote: “Hello, friends at VOV. Today I had the pleasure of receiving your signal in short wave (English language). It was very exciting to be able to listen to you.”

B: Celso Shimomura of Brazil sent us audio clip of his reception. He wrote: “Greetings! This is to report reception of your signal in Brazil on February 06, 2022 - on the frequency 11885 kHz, at 2144UTC, with SINPO 44334.”

A: It’s a nice surprise that this frequency is beamed to Europe and Central Asia and listeners in Latin America can catch it. Thank you all for your reception reports. We appreciate your effort and look forward to receiving more feedback from you. Our program is also available on our website at vovworld.vn, or on the VOV Media app. You can also interact with us via our Facebook Fanpage VOV English Service.

B: Johnny A. Ramirez Lopez of Peru in his message to VOV this week wrote: “Congratulations, Vietnam. I love you so much "My little heart from Asia" Happy Tet 2022 holidays to you ! May all God's blessings rain down on every Vietnamese home and family. May it always rain health, peace, well-being, prosperity, gratitude, love, and integration on your 54 admirable cultures. Have a happy and beautiful Tet Holidays. May your wishes come true. Success always! Receive a big hug and greetings from ancient, sacred, visionary Peru. As we say in my land: Vietnam, I love you a lot! Congratulations !

A: Thank you, Mr. Lopez, for your New Year wishes for Vietnam and VOV and for sharing with us your love for our country. We also wish you a Happy New Year and hope to visit your beautiful country sometime in the future.

B: As our listeners have said we all hope for a great year in 2022. Actually, this year is promising to be a great year for Vietnamese sports as on the very first day of the new Lunar Year, February 1, we celebrated the Vietnamese national men’s football team’s 3-1 victory over China in the World Cup qualifiers.

Vietnamese women's football team wins a history victory to play at FIFA World Cup 2023

A: Less than a week later, on February 6, we celebrated a history victory by the Vietnamese women’s football team. By beating Chinese Taipei 2-1 in a play-off match at the 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup, the Vietnamese women’s football team qualified for the FIFA Women's World Cup for the very first time.

A: This victory won the team international applause. It was a remarkable end to a difficult journey for team, some of whom contracted COVID-19 during a training trip to Spain. They were able to survive a round in a formidable group that included Japan and the Republic of Korea.

B: The FIFA website said the Vietnamese team played an excellent match. The official Twitter account of the Organizing Committee of the 2022 Asian Women’s Football Championship posted a video recording the squad's moment of victory and some of the many congratulations they received.

Vietnamese women football team are honored for their achievement

A:  On FIFA's Twitter the 2023 World Cup organizers posted a picture of captain Huynh Nhu and the message “Congratulations to Vietnam! For the first time in history they qualified for the Women’s FIFA World Cup. See you in 2023!”

B: Bidhan Chandra Sanyal of India sent several letters congratulating Vietnam's football players. He wrote: “We are proud and delighted with this outstanding achievement of Vietnam. Congratulations to the Vietnam football team and the people of Vietnam for this remarkable achievement. With love.”

A: Thank you all for your recognition of our beautiful, heroic women. We hope to see them succeed at the FIFA World Cup in Australia and New Zealand next year.

B: This week VOVWorld received more than 300 letters and emails from listeners around the world. In many of the letters, listeners asked about Vietnam’s Tet traditions.

A: Tet, the lunar New Year festival, is the most important festival in Vietnam. On this occasion, people practice traditional customs to wish for a new lunar year full of peace, luck, wealth, and prosperity.

Soldiers and islanders on Song Tu Tay island make Chung cakes for Tet

B: The tradition of making wrapped sticky rice cakes known as Chung cakes has been passed down from generation to generation since the Hung Kings’ era thousands of years ago. These cakes, a symbol of wet rice cultivation, are indispensable offerings on the ancestors’ altar of Vietnamese families. The Chung cake represents the earth while the round sticky bun called the Giay cake symbolizes the sky, reflecting Vietnamese people’s wish for harmony and luck in the new year.

A: Tet flowers are another indispensable item during the holiday. Flowers symbolize happiness, good luck, and joy. In northern Vietnam, people often place peach blossoms on their ancestors’ altars and decorate their houses with kumquat trees. People in Vietnam's central and southern regions prefer yellow apricot flowers.

Bonsai kumquat trees are much sought after at Tet

B: Paying visits to friends and relatives is a beautiful Vietnamese Tet tradition. Children wish grandparents and parents health and joy while and receive envelops containing lucky money from the adults.

A: Visiting pagodas during the first days of the new lunar year is another tradition maintained for generations to show people's respect for the Buddha and the ancestors.

B: During Tet, a bamboo pole called a Neu tree is erected in front of the house from the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month until the 7th day of the new lunar year to chase away evil spirits.

A: Preparing a special five fruit tray on New Year’s Eve, inviting a lucky person to be your first house guest of the year are other important customs for marking the new lunar year in Vietnam. These customs have been around for thousands of years and honored by generations of Vietnamese people.

B: The customs and traditions of Tet vary somewhat between regions but they all embrace Vietnamese people’s wish for a new lunar year full of peace, luck, health, and prosperity.

A: Several listeners including members of the Metali Listeners’ Club in India asked about VOV’s celebration of World Radio Day on February 13.

B: Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, activities celebrating World Radio Day in Vietnam will be restricted this year. Local radio stations will hold seminars and workshops on ways to improve radio content and ways to gain the audience's trust in response to the theme of this year’s event “Radio and Trust” selected by UNESCO.

11th World Radio Day is celebrated at VOV

A: At VOV, Vietnam's national radio broadcasting agency, we will organize an international workshop on the role and trends of radio in the new context and ways to make radio a reliable channel of information.

B: Time is running out on VOV. We thank you all for joining us today. Goodbye until next time.