Tet Am Ap 2016: Celebrate the Tet holiday with Chung cake

This Tet holiday, Amsers, with their well-known popularity of active extra-curricular activities, were preparing Chung cakes for an event called “Tet Am Ap”. Every handmade Chung cake was perfectly shaped, filled with green beans, sticky rice, and meat. These cakes were then given to the elderly and orphans, making Tet Am Ap one of the most longstanding and meaningful events for high school students before the Lunar New Year.

When it comes to Tet, making the Chung cake is perhaps the first choice of many schools for students to understand the practical and traditional values of our ancestors. Ha Noi-Amsterdam High School is one of the few schools in Hanoi to actually succeed in organizing this kind of event through generations of students. Tet Am Ap (TAA) is one of the many events of GHA (Green Ha Noi-Amsterdam) – an environmental and voluntary club founded by Amsers. The club has undergone 7 years of running and attracted hundreds of volunteers from all over Hanoi.

The main activity of TAA is making the Chung cake itself. This year, this activity took place in the morning of 5/2/2016 at Kim Lien Elementary School (17 Hoang Tich Tri, Kim Lien, Dong Da, HaNoi). There are over 200 volunteers from many high schools in Ha Noi participated in this year’s TAA.

The volunteers had much fun during the Preparation Day

The Preparation Day was filled with joy and excitement. As soon as everybody arrived, they started making the Chung cake almost right away.

Chung cake – a traditional dish, is being carefully made by volunteers

They could easily make this cake a perfect square without using any molds. After finishing the first product, many enthusiastic volunteers were willing to make another cake with the leftover ingredients.

The perfect Chung cakes after a long day of hard work

After putting the very last cake in the pot, all volunteers sat back and enjoyedmany performances as well as games to break the ice between one another.

Tet Am Ap is the best place to have a wonderful experience and make new friends. It marked the perfect ending to 2015, and left behind the most awesome memory of high school. Moreover, Tet Am Ap is a great, philanthropicevent which celebrate national customs. Years ago, kids would always find joy in looking at the Chung cakes being cooked in the pot at Tet. However, nowadays, that joy is far out of reach in the modern world. This somewhat short event is a good way to reminisce about this seemingly forgotten moment, to go back to the past and cherish the essence of Viet Nam’s culture.

Tet Am Ap is considered an opportunity for friends to bond

The Preparation Day ended, but many members and organizers still stayed around to watch over the cakes till dark. This must have been the most unforgettable experience for each of them.

Reporter: My Duyen – History 1417

Translator:  Hai Dang - English 1 1518