I left my homeland for almost 40 years. Every time the Tet holiday comes, sitting inside my house and looking at the snow everywhere, my memory about Tet holiday in my homeland comes back in my mind…Here being overseas or in urban cities we can find many ways that celebrate Tet holiday; like shopping mall, bar & casino, musical Year-End show, flower markets, church and pagodas for buddhists, but still a lot of people prefer going back to their homeland for Tet celebration. We are trying to understand the rationale behind this popular tradition? It is just like North American’s thinking “I’ll be home for Christmas”.
Every time I hear somebody say about “I ‘ll
be home for Tet”, my heart was filled with a fresh breeze after several
days of hibernation in the snow. It is hard to describe that feeling. We are
trying to understand the reasons behind that popular statement.
All of us have a homeland for Tet
celebration. Tet is the biggest and the most sacred festival. Tet according to Vietnamese tradition is a family-oriented
celebration. It is the mostexciting event to a majority of the Vietnamese
because it is time for family members to get together after a year of absence
and to light up incense on the altar to honour their ancestors. This is also a
time to send greetings to their neighbours, friends and relatives. Tet days are
always regarded as an opportunity to enjoy traditional foods such as “banh
chung” (sticky rice cake), banh tet, the fragrance of which alone could
strongly provoke one’s sense of nostalgia for Tet. It represents a unique trait
of the Vietnamese culture.
There is no rule for Tet holiday, neither an
obligation to go home for Tet. But when Tet holiday arrives, people everywhere
take vacation times to go home. If someone missed that opportunity, he would
regret it for the entire year to come. Regretting because they would think they
don’t respect their ancestors, or achieve goals set by their parents. For
grand-children they will regret not having completed their commitment toward
their parents too. For the elder people
they don’t feel comfortable if they don’t see their children come home. When
approaching the date of December 27 to 29 of the 12 months of the lunar
calendar they start worrying a lot because they think that their children did
not have a good year or maybe they are not healthy.
For some of us living overseas, the idea of “go
home for Tet holiday” is a great challenge. Because some of us are like poor
people living in big cities, the “go home
for Tet holiday” becomes a burden; first they have to take care of their
young children, looking for someone to take care of them or to drive them to
school and to feed them during their vacations, etc….They have to buy gift for
everyone because after a long absence they cannot just go home and greet them,
the presents are a must. Unless they feel that it is not worth it to see their
siblings. They don’t normally have a lot of time. In addition it is a long trip
to go home. That is the reason why a lot of oversea Vietnamese stay where they
are to celebrate sadly the Tet in the loneliness. We think in those
circumstances the parents understand their situation and forgive them. Nowadays
most of elderly people stay in the nursing home. During the Tet holidays, no
children come to greet and to share with them. It is unacceptable in that case.
The younger people don’t have the same
thinking. Younger people prefer having more activities, more pleasure, more
friends and more funs. Only the older people have the nostalgia of looking back
to their root with old memory. We all have the responsibility to remind the
youngers about the Tet holiday because Tet is the occasion to pay their debt,
not financial debt but spiritual. Their parents don’t need money or new
dresses. They just want to see their children happy all together with the smile
in their face. Tet holidays are equivalent to family reunion. It is a kind of
spiritual bond to tie all family members together after several days of
absence. In the Tet holidays what is needed is just a face-to-face, saying a
caring word to parents, exchanging some jokes or sharing some good and bad news
during “mac chuoc” game or during the cooking of traditional rice cake “banh chung” in the
back yard. During that time their parents watch carefully how their children
dressed to predict the healthiness of their business. Those emotions could only
be found in the homeland.
Spring is a first cycle of a year. Everything
wakes up after a long cold winter season. The beautiful characteristic of the
homeland seems to get back to life. We have seen the sign of life in every
corner of streets, the smile in human faces and birds twittering and flocking
back to their nest. It is a typical spring scene of my homeland – Soc Trang
town.
According to occidental tradition, Christmas
is the most solemn day of the year while Asian people celebrate the most
popular Chinese Lunar New Year instead, with the formal name is Nguyên-đán. New
Year is like Christmas, New Year’s and Valentine’s Day in the West, all wrapped
into one angst-ridden celebration. Tết is a very important festival because it
provides one of the few breaks in the agricultural year, as it falls between
the harvesting of the crops and the sowing of the new crops. Not natural that
people love and are always waiting for spring. Spring is the beginning of a
year; beautiful moments of nature; reunion of family members while the children
living overseas return to their fatherland, with loving families. It is also is
the opportunity for people send each
other good wishes to one another and how they are missed after these months
apart ... so amazing, Spring is what everyone
is waiting for. On the last day of the year, the trolley car is increasingly
crowded, even when the sun does not shine on the roads poured in Soc Trang yet.
That early morning scene gives people beautiful unforgettable pictures.
It's the flickering lights of the trolley car
together with brittle sound that break the silence of the morning and wake up things
that are still asleep. Between the blended quiet with haste when people jack up
the trolley car with merchandises, the cage containing poultry, fruit basket in
a very small place, on a fragile and heavy vehicle. Those passengers with
bandanas on head, walking with sandals, all immerse in the thinking, all still
want to prolong sleep.
Looking at the bright yellow apricot
flourishing in the spring sky, my heart flutters. Yet that feeling reminds me to
look forward to the goodness that is awaiting.
Every Spring in any Vietnamese, recall the
apricot tree (Mai), is referred to the traditional New Year, referred to rice
cakes, plants indicated artillery colon, fatty meat pickled with onions, red
parallel sentences…
Spring in the bad bud,
Seeing apricot flower in old year
becomes golden land.
I don’t know if anyone thinks about Apricot
flower but every time I see it, it reminds me of those two verses of Cao Ba
Quat. I strongly believe that these sayings are as strong as an athlete:
Around ten years looking for
treasure
My whole life just enjoys the
apricot flowers…
I remember one New Year morning, at my house,
people are dressed in clothes neatly, parents sat and waited for the first
guest to come to the house, with delicious cup of tea, relaxing stomach,
besides the apricot flower vase. Beautiful apricot flower we should watch. At
times like that, my heart was really peaceful. In the yard, there was also
apricot flower, everywhere. From my grandfather, to my father, the whole family
loves the apricot flower, even now down to my generation. Perhaps the feeling
is also genetic. In fact, in general, the majority of South Vietnamese adored
the apricot flower. It is possible that is it genetic for all Vietnamese too.
People in northern Vietnam chose peach
blossom to welcome the spring because these flowers were associated with two
gods who guarded people against evil spirit. In the south yellow apricot
flowers (Mai) are associated with spring and the Tet holiday. Mai flowers have
been used to decorate temples, pagodas and communal houses in southern Vietnam.
The legend explaining why this flower appears in the springtime can move us to
tears. A young maiden was determined to fight a monstrous goblin that had
demolished her village. In order to kill the goblin, the young girl, clad in a
yellow dress, had to sacrifice herself. To comfort her family and the other
villagers, she returned home every year to celebrate the Tet holidays. After
her parents and siblings had passed away, a tree with bright yellow was seen
growing in the yard of her house. In honor of this heroic maiden, people
planted these trees everywhere.
On the way to Sóc Trăng you will find these
trees among the vast rice field, with a few crowds singing happily. You will
not be surprise with these popular sceneries because life in the countryside of
Vietnam is a serious social life, a clear sense of solidarity, living
collectively in harmony, kindness from every individual, every family. Be sure
to observe the crowd's expressing that scenery. You will see them emptying canal,
scooping fields in preparation for the New Year? After the harvest rush, after
the night of threshing, they dry rice, harvest from the rice they planted, they
brought part of rice to the plant, part would be sold, the rest would be poured
into the barns for provision of the year. This is the moment of enjoying the
wealth, they think of the food, drink, although it is not formal but it is still
reflected the local character.
Going to my hometown Soc Trang to have the
opportunity to enjoy exceptional local products such as golden watermelon of
Dai Tam, mud salted fish noodle soups, sausages, sesame cookies, My Xuyen beef
in ceramic tile, Pia cake of Vung Thom, etc… Soc Trang People are very proud of their
golden watermelon, a famous agricultural products which sometimes an guy from
other town would dare to tease a girl by selling watermelon with flirting
lyrics:
O girl of Soc Trang,
In Tet I give golden watermelon
of Dai Tam.
If you did not taste the golden watermelon of
Dai Tâm, you could not understand about Soc Trăng, because the golden
watermelon of Đại Tâm is a long-standing local product, with original, seeds
cultivating by implant technique art. Be volunteer in a beautiful day, you'll
tell us the golden watermelon of Đại Tâm is the seed of King Hung Vuong. When
he brought the local product from the island back to the mainland. His ship
stopped in Soc Trang which was the first station by emotions when he looked
back home, therefore he gave the watermelon seed to the indigenous of people of Đại Tâm.
In big cities there are temples and churches
for peoples to practice the religion for holidays during spring holidays, but
people still prefer going home for Tet holiday. From childhood our parents took
us to the pagodas to light up incense and to pay respect to our ancestors in
the Lunar New Year. Familiar pagodas in villages became subconscious to our
childhood. Therefore people always prefer to go back to their hometown to lit
the incense on the altar to remember, to gratify our parents, grandparents and
ancestors, to have the opportunity to offer a bowl of rice and a glass of wine
to ancestors, to visit the grave of ancestors and also to remember the
unforgettable memories with the deceased.
Along with iconic elements of ancient
Vietnamese villages such as banyan trees, communal houses and lush river banks,
rural markets retain the atmosphere of the olden days. Even today rural markets
feel charming and authentic. The most special market of the year takes place on
the last day of the lunar year. These Tet markets open longer than normal
markets and are characterized by lots of noise and good cheer. People scurry around
busy making deals and buying everything that they will need to decorate their
homes and feed their families. It feels as if a whole year of hard work is
about to be rewarded with a few days of relaxation.
Goods exchanged at the Tet markets are mainly
produce, grains and handicrafts made by locals. However the Tet market boasts a
great variety of merchandise for daily uses, plus special products for the
holidays. Succulent grapefruit are indispensable on the tray of five fruits
that people offer to their ancestors. Betel nuts and areca also make a great
combination on ancestral altars. In one corner an old lady sits near a plump
hen. In another a lovely puppy nuzzles the hand of its young master. Here and
there stalls display betel nuts, incense and votive papers.
It is not just the lure of buying and
selling, villagers come here to greet their friends, to share funny stories and
to enquire about family matters. They come to enjoy a juicy pancake or a
grilled corncob. Rural markets allow people to bond with their neighbors.
We can see rarely the places where we can
find of lot of warm and charming family love, the neighborhood relationships in
Vietnamese villages. It is the emotional and invisible strings but it is strong,
holding and urging people to go home every time the Tet holiday arrives, even
the spring…
Phucnguyen Dec 2012
