The loyal veteran
For the people of the old Tien Hoa commune, everyone knows Mr. Tran Van Ly, not only because he was the Secretary of the Tam Da village Party Cell, but also because he is a loyal veteran. Fortunately, the generation of soldiers in peacetime like him did not have to directly carry guns to the battlefield. As he said, that luck did not come by chance, because many generations of fathers and brothers sacrificed their blood and bones so that the country could have peace and independence like today.
After nearly 30 years in the military, he understood the fierceness and losses of soldiers on the battlefield. Especially during the more than 10 years, he and his comrades crossed forests and mountains to remote villages in Laos to search for and collect the remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts who died while on international missions to bring them back to their homeland. It was his own hands that collected the remains of martyrs, many of which were just handfuls of soil, because the bodies had turned into trees, rocks and most of them had no clear information. Although he was not a believer in spiritual things, during that time, there were strange things that he could not explain to this day.
Once, his working group had just arrived at a Laotian village in the middle of the jungle when someone came to report that a martyr's grave had been discovered. After arriving at the search site, the working group recovered 7 sets of martyrs' remains and prepared to withdraw. However, during a lunch break, one of the team members had a dream of meeting... soldiers. Instinctively, the officers and soldiers continued to expand the search area and discovered another set of remains. And many more strange stories happened, as if there was some kind of spiritual connection, communication, and guidance that only those chosen to entrust could understand.
More than 100 pairs of banh chung were wrapped by people.
The day he stopped wearing the soldier's uniform, every time he came to offer incense at the martyrs' cemetery, Mr. Ly kept thinking, wanting to do something to show gratitude to the generations of fathers and brothers who had fallen for the independence and freedom of the Fatherland. In 2020, when he was the Secretary of the Tam Da village Party Cell, he proposed the idea of organizing Chung cake wrapping to show gratitude. His idea quickly received enthusiastic response from the local people. Since then, every time on War Invalids and Martyrs Day, July 27, the people of Tam Da village voluntarily contributed their efforts, together wrapping Chung cake to offer to the graves of heroic martyrs.
"Lighting" gratitude
When he came to Le Loi village (Van Hoa commune, old Tuyen Hoa district, now Tuyen Hoa commune) to present his wish to organize Chung cake wrapping on the occasion of July 27, Mr. Tran Van Ly did not expect that all the people would respond. So from the beginning of July, the people here were busy planning and preparing the stages from mobilizing financial contributions to organizing the implementation. Early in the morning of July 25, many people were present at the village cultural house to wrap the cakes. Each person had a task, the elderly and the young meticulously folded each leaf, gently poured sticky rice and cake filling into the mold, smoothed each corner, trying to make their cake more square, more perfect than others' cakes. In just one day, more than 100 pairs of Chung cakes were completed. The next day, they brought these pairs of Chung cakes, respectfully offering them to the graves of heroic martyrs and the altars of families with meritorious services in the area. Here, they told each other many stories and memories about the sacrifices of heroic martyrs or the life of fighting with guns of veterans, which were recalled as unforgettable memories.
Ms. Tran Thi Hong, a resident of Le Loi village, shared: “Our generation has experienced war and bombs, so we understand the value of peace and national independence. These banh chung cakes, though small, are our people’s gratitude to the generation of ancestors who died for the Fatherland.” |
Mr. Tran Van Ly shared: “The important thing of this activity is not necessarily the appeal, propaganda or mobilization, but the voice, the heart connecting with the heart that has been spread. We only keep in mind one thing, for the heroic martyrs, especially the martyrs whose graves are in martyr cemeteries in the area, whose information has not been identified, each of us is their relative. Our work today not only partly comforts and warms their souls, but we ourselves also feel more peaceful”.
| Head of the Department of Culture and Society of Tuyen Hoa Commune, Tran Duc Hien, said that after Tam Da village, this is the first year that Le Loi villagers have organized Chung cake wrapping to show gratitude to heroic martyrs. This is a very meaningful activity, aiming to arouse and educate the tradition of "remembering the source of water when drinking" of the nation for today's and future generations. |
At that sacred ceremony, there were also many students and members of the Youth Union. From now on, the silent but meaningful flames of gratitude will contribute to nurturing, spreading and reminding today's and future generations of the glorious traditions and history of our ancestors that have been passed down for thousands of years. No one else but your generation will continue, writing more glorious pages of the nation's history, contributing to building our homeland and country to become more and more prosperous.
Duong Cong Hop
Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/goi-long-tri-an-196282.htm
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