These are markets that have taken place on the last days of the lunar year in many Vietnamese countryside for hundreds of years and have become a feature of the "Tet culture" of Vietnamese people.
Rural markets usually only hold one session a day: tomorrow market (morning meeting) or day market (afternoon meeting), but during Tet, due to high demand for trading, Tet markets in the countryside often take place the whole time. day.
Unlike regular markets, the goods at the Tet market are not just home garden products grown and harvested by rural people and then brought to the market to buy, sell and exchange. The Tet countryside market also has products from neighboring craft villages or items produced mostly in urban areas such as wine, tea, cake jam, offerings, etc. The Tet market also has goods. appear only once a year such as: Tet paintings, couplets, Han-Nom characters handwritten or printed on red paper, votive offerings used for offerings, items to display and decorate the house. Especially many flowers and fruits typical of spring such as apricot, peach, kumquat...
People go to Tet markets not only to wholesale and shop, but also to see, to play, to immerse themselves in the vibrant, bustling atmosphere of "welcoming Spring, welcoming Tet" after a year of hard work. Therefore, at the Tet market, there are not only adults who worry about buying and selling, but also children who follow their parents to see the people, the scenery, and to see the gift items they have always wanted: clothes. New clothes to wear during Tet, cute and funny toys sold on stalls in front of the market gate, delicious gifts and cakes that are imprinted in children's minds, and to enjoy the atmosphere of the approaching Tet. Close to the idyllic countryside.
The Tet countryside market also welcomes seniors, people who go to the market not for the purpose of buying and selling, but to meet and chat with fellow countrymen, same-aged people... looking for "a bygone era" still left in their memories. market days, to share the happy and sad stories of the past year.
For many generations, the Tet market in the countryside is not only a normal economic activity but also a cultural activity, an invisible thread connecting the love between neighbors, a special space and time. so that everyone can feel the harmony of heaven and earth and all things before spring.
For that reason, the image of the Tet market in the countryside has entered many poetic works, including the poem Tet Market by Doan Van Cu published in the collection Vietnamese Poets (by Hoai Thanh - Hoai Chan, Hoa Tien Publishing House, 1967). This is like a spring picture painted with verses:
The strip of white clouds gradually turns red on the top of the mountain
Pink and blue mist hugs the roof of the cottage
On the white border road at the edge of the green hill
People from all hamlets jubilantly go to the Tet market
...
The guys in red shirts ran away
A few old men walked with canes and bent over
She lovingly covered her lips and smiled quietly
The baby nestled his head next to his mother's bib
Two villagers carried pigs and ran ahead
The funny yellow cow chased after
...
A schoolmaster hunches his back on the counter,
Hands are busy studying and writing spring poetry
The old man stopped and stroked his beard
Mentally read a few lines of red couplets
An old woman sells goods at an ancient temple
The time it takes to wash your white hair fades away
The flower man has a brown scarf on his head
Sit and rearrange the pile of gold on the mat
...
Today, although life is somewhat rushed and modern with many constant changes, causing many old features to be lost, Tet markets in the countryside still exist. Even though those markets are no longer as intact as poet Doan Van Cu's Tet Market, they are still full of cultural and human values, like slow-motion movies that preserve for contemporary Vietnamese people the The beauty of the old Tet in the countryside.
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