Vietnamese migrant workers and low-income immigrants in South Korea’s Busan port city come together to celebrate Tet and reminisce about their homeland.

A ship’s crewmembers from the north-central province of Quang Binh have just returned from their exhausting sea voyage to their rented rooms in the city of Busan, where some thousands of Vietnamese people are living and working.

Several of these men are about to set off for their last sea voyage before taking time off for the Lunar New Year, which begins on Jan 31 in Vietnam, Korea, and several other Asian countries.

Le Viet Xuan, from Quang Binh’s Bo Trach District, shared that he and his coworkers are very homesick at times, especially before and during Tet.

In recent years, during the holiday season, Xuan’s rented room has become a rendezvous for his friends, particularly those who hail from his village and province.

“The atmosphere is the most special on Lunar New Year’s Eve. Everyone shares delicacies from Vietnamese shops in Busan or from their families back home. We also burn incense and make food offerings to our ancestors. On the other hand, we feel the saddest and most homesick at this time,” Xuan shared.

Tran Xuan Tu, one of Xuan’s coworkers, said that after the Lunar New Year’s Eve party, everyone gathers around a borrowed laptop and eagerly fixes their eyes on the screen to watch the Tet activities in their hometown unfold via their town website (www.lyhoa.vn).

Posted video clips and photos of their families, friends, and communal activities like boat races and football matches—along with phone and video calls from their families—add warmth to their Tet and give them strength for another year of working away from home.

Xuan, Tu, and many other Vietnamese migrant workers and immigrants most frequent the Huong Viet (Fragrance of Vietnam) eatery run by a Vietnamese woman named Nguyen Thi Hanh. Hanh is happily married to a Korean man with whom she has two children.

She said that on the days before and during Tet every year, particularly on Lunar New Year’s Eve, her shop is always packed with members of the Vietnamese community, including boatmen, factory workers, women married to Koreans, and even illegal immigrants working in Busan and other provinces.

“On the eve of Tet, no matter what part of Vietnam they come from or what their jobs are, all mingle and bond like siblings,” shared Hanh, while unpacking airmailed packages of Vietnamese Tet specialties she orders for her clients.

Hanh’s shop is also a popular rendezvous spot for Vietnamese migrant workers on other holidays and occasions. They come there to relish the rustic dishes of their home country, seek solace in the cozy atmosphere, and take pride in the Vietnamese flag printed on the shop’s sign.