Free lion dance troupe

Illustration: Phan Nhan

She remembered the days living in Nha Trang. Her house was deep in a narrow alley, but every Mid-Autumn Festival was lively and bustling. The clanging of drums echoed through the slum houses, and the pungent smell of mooncakes and sticky rice cakes sold on the streets filled her nostrils, making her gasp for air. The most captivating thing was that every afternoon, she and the other kids in the neighborhood would follow the lion dance troupe through the streets. But now… She wanted to cry. Oh, how sad! This desolate mountain village had no concept of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Mom, why don't people here know how to perform the lion dance?

- I know. But we're too poor; we don't even have enough to eat, so how can we have the strength to dance?

- I like lion dances.

- If you like, go ahead and dance!

- Where's the lion dance? Oh, Mom, maybe you could go down to the town and buy me a lion head!

- Ask around to see if anyone wants to buy your mother, then sell her and use the money to buy a lion dance costume!

Rejected by his mother, he looked dejected.

Pulling his hat down over his head, he stormed out of the house. He went to find his closest friends to vent his frustrations. He was a child, and his friends were children too. What was the point of having children if there was no Mid-Autumn Festival? He and his two friends sat there, frustrated and sighing, their faces as gloomy as bankrupt merchants on the verge of bankruptcy.

It was lunchtime, and Ton and Luom were urging him to come home for lunch, but he wasn't interested. In this situation, he wouldn't even want meat, let alone rice and vegetables. His mother called out, urging him to come home, but he stubbornly refused to eat. Never mind. One hungry meal wouldn't kill him. Not eating was the most effective way to "protest." His mother was always worried about him being hungry. He was a very picky eater. A little hunger and he'd be completely limp. His mother anxiously shouted, "Rice or a whip, which do you choose?" He still wouldn't come home. Don't even think about using the whip to pressure him. He remained sitting silently under the crape myrtle tree. He started to tremble with hunger, but feeling incredibly defiant, he stayed put. His mother gave up, went to the crape myrtle tree to fetch him, and said, "Eat up. If you want to dance, I'll make a lion dance for you tonight…"

After dinner, the mother and son sat down to make lion dance costumes.

The lion's head was an old basket with a hole in it. My mother took a knife, propped the basket on a piece of wood behind the house, trimmed the rim into an oval shape, and said that was the lion's mouth. Next, she carved two round holes on top for the eyes. "Now you have a lion's head, dance!" "What? Dance with a torn basket on my head? How disgusting!" I sat there with a sullen face. My mother suggested we just use colored paper, trim the fur and whiskers, and it would be a lion's head. Basically, the important thing is whether it looks good when dancing, a lion is a lion anyway. This idea seemed good! I used up all the colored paper, and if that wasn't enough, I even tore off white paper, cut it into thin strips, and glued them onto the basket. It looked colorful and quite sparkling. Oh well! Better than nothing.

If you have a head, you need a body, right? A lion dance costume without a body would look like a girl with a lion's face, that's for sure. Frowning in thought, he ran to borrow a floral blanket from his mother. His mother yelled, "You're making a mess! What are you going to use to cover yourself? If you're going to dance and produce rice, I'll give you a blanket to dance with!" Good heavens, the lion's head is just a tattered basket… and you want to dance and produce rice? Mom, try giving me a real lion's head… he grumbled to himself. His father encouraged him, saying, "Let's use a tattered mosquito net from the corner of the house as a costume for the lion. He used to play like that when he was little, and he still finds it funny when he thinks about it… Mid-Autumn Festival is basically fun!"

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to accept it. I guess I'll just go for it, maybe the lion dance head, unlike anyone else's, will make an impression. Ah, there's one more thing missing. It's a small thing, but without it, the lion dance team will just stand there crying. That's right. Quick-witted, Ton ran downstairs to get a pot lid. Luom went to find two drumsticks. Luom is good at playing the frog drum, so he's pretty confident about the lion dance drums.

That's it, tomorrow at 7 PM the lion dance team (three of us) will officially start practicing to be ready for the Mid-Autumn Festival debut and performance.

But the Earth God doesn't have a mask. Well, hopefully everyone will understand that Ton, the Earth God, is from a poor household with a registration number. Not having a mask is one thing, but he needs a fan and a belly to perform. Okay, let's just cut a piece of cardboard into a circle to make a fan, then roll up two or three old shirts, stuff them in, and tie Ton's old hat strap around his belly. Immediately, Ton has the bulky appearance of the Earth God. "You have to joke and tease everyone, understand? You have to make people laugh. The Earth God's job is to cheer up the host, especially the kids... What's wrong? You're so stupid! The Earth God is the embodiment of Maitreya Buddha, always cheerful, understand? If you show a face that refuses to eat, you'll get a whipping!" - She bared her teeth, "disciplining" Ton very systematically and strictly.

She mainly assembled the lion dance troupe to train for Ông Địa Ton (the Earth God), because Lượm was already confident in his drumming skills, and she had already mastered the lion dance herself. She could charge left and right, advance and retreat, leap forward majestically, jump high, prostrate… everything was rhythmic and graceful. Her father praised her for having such a talent for lion dancing, even though she was a girl.

Everything was ready, and it was also the perfect day for a full moon.

Boom boom boom, clack boom boom boom boom! That's the sound of the lion dance drums from the other team (the lion dance team that performed on the streets of Nha Trang, which he used to watch), while their own lion dance team just kept making clacking sounds on the dirt road.

- Uncle, can we come inside and dance?

- What's with all this dancing? The clanging is deafening!

- It may sound a bit noisy, but the lion dance is really good, you know, uncle...

- Is that a unicorn?

- It's a real lion dance... Please, Uncle?? I'm begging you...

Go play somewhere else!

- We don't need to hang up any money while we dance.

"Whose children are these? So stubborn!" Uncle Ba shouted angrily. The three children fell silent and retreated to the street.

"How about we just dance in the street?" Ton suggested. I snapped, "In the street? How can we? We need people to watch us dance in the street. It's deserted like this, are we going to dance for ghosts?" He was already discouraged. "Leave it to me, let's keep going."

Cheng cheng cheng…

The lion dance troupe stood in front of Uncle Tuan's house. Having learned his lesson, he wasn't foolish enough to bring his well-trained troupe inside and risk being yelled at again. Uncle Tuan was a friend of his father's in the cassava farming business, and he often came over for tea and drinks, so he felt confident:

Uncle Eight, can we let the lion dance troupe come into the house?

Go to another house, son, my house is too small!

- It's okay, my lion dance troupe is very small.

But you don't have a gift bag?

- This is a free lion dance troupe, okay, sir?

- YES!

After the "yes," the clattering of the lion dance erupted. Lượm, overjoyed, pounded the lid of the lion costume he wore around his belly with great force. The drums urged the lion forward, its body arching, leaping, spreading out, and twisting and turning with great ferocity, attacking left and right... Ông Địa (the Earth God), clutching his bulging belly, went to the tea table to pour water and fan the bereaved. The clattering was so intense; the lion dance troupe performed with all their might. They only stopped when they were completely exhausted and could no longer dance.

The host clapped loudly. The lion dance troupe was overjoyed. They were so enthusiastic that they gestured for another round, and Lượm immediately started clacking away. But Uncle Eight said, "Why the rush? After the performance, you have to receive your reward!" "Yes, this is a free lion dance," they replied. Uncle Eight laughed heartily, bringing up a plate of boiled cassava, topped with chives and sprinkled with fragrant pepper. "Here, a treat for the volunteer lion dance troupe." Oh my, I've seen Uncle Eight's wife selling this dish in front of the school gate all the time; it looked so tempting, but where would I get the money to buy it? Seeing the large plate of cassava, the six eyes of the lion dance troupe lit up like flashlights, and they eagerly reached out to grab it.

After finishing the plate of cassava, all three of them had bellies as big as the bellies of the Earth God.

Cheng cheng cheng. The unicorn is leaving again…

But this time I'm going home to sleep. Uncle Eight warned me not to stay out late and cause trouble in the neighborhood. Besides, I'm too full, I'm too tired to jump around.

***

That was the Mid-Autumn Festival twenty years ago, the Mid-Autumn Festival of me and my two best friends.

As time passes, few things are forgotten, but countless changes occur.

The old mountain village is now a district town, and Uncle Tuan has passed away. My two friends and I drifted to Saigon to make a living. Occasionally, if we happen to meet, the three of us will laugh heartily and recount the story of carrying our tattered baskets while dancing…

This morning, at the beginning of August, Luom called me, insisting on coming back to the mountain village for the Mid-Autumn Festival. When I asked what was up, he chuckled and said he wanted to see if there were any children left in his village who still carried tattered baskets while dancing, so he could sponsor them with a magnificent lion dance costume and celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival to the fullest…

Source: http://baolamdong.vn/van-hoa-nghe-thuat/202409/doi-lan-mien-phi-61229d5/