The scent of Tet

The scent of Tet (Vietnamese New Year) arrives in the hustle and bustle of vehicles bringing the warmth of spring to remote villages, delivering loving gifts to elderly people and children in disadvantaged areas; in the hurried journeys past homes, where soldiers cannot return to visit due to their duties; and in the peaceful atmosphere of hospitals where the sirens of ambulances do not blare.

The scent of Tet (Vietnamese New Year) is the scent of peaceful life.

As the year draws to a close, we reporters become even busier, traveling back and forth across the country to produce Tet (Lunar New Year) programs. Whenever I look out the car window and see the spring air coming from the apricot and plum blossom forests or the hustle and bustle of the city streets, I find myself reminiscing about the Tet celebrations of many years ago. It's the image of long lines of container trucks on roads perpetually covered in gray dust.

Growing up in a village specializing in handcrafted stone carvings – a place always bustling with life – I've been particularly sensitive to smells since I was a child. For me, Tet (Vietnamese New Year) doesn't begin with the vibrant colors of spring flowers blooming, but with the scent of passing vehicles.

In the days leading up to Tet (Lunar New Year), long-distance container truck drivers often stop by my family's restaurant to eat and sometimes take a nap. In my mother's restaurant, I smell the scent of Tet from the warm coats worn after long journeys of hundreds of kilometers, covered in dust and smoke; from the rare but salty drops of sweat in the winter. My father said it was the smell of worry and haste as Tet approached, a smell I only understood when I grew up and left home: it was about saving time for personal activities, snatching rest so the truck could arrive safely at its destination as early as possible. When I returned home, the unpleasant smell of long journeys, the dust-covered coats, the worn socks, or the dirty backpack became peaceful and warm.

Going home for Tet (Lunar New Year)... makes all the fatigue disappear.

Away from home for university, I felt the essence of Tet (Vietnamese New Year) even more strongly from those last-minute journeys. In that cramped, stuffy, and confined space, joy radiated from the scent of new clothes, shoes, and carefully packaged Hanoi specialties brought back as gifts for relatives in the countryside. Back then, bringing Hanoi goods home as Tet gifts—from Tay Ho lotus tea and Uoc Le pork sausage to various candies and preserved fruits—was always praised as the best and tastiest. Now, as Tet approaches, I see my friends' parents sending several boxes of goods from their hometowns to the city, accompanied by the sigh, "Nothing is as reliable as homemade goods." At that moment, I thought that gifts, whether sent or brought back, were always filled with the warmth of family affection.

On that bus ride, I could still sense the festive atmosphere of Tet (Vietnamese New Year) from the mixed smells in the old, dirty banknotes that the woman sitting at the back of the bus kept counting, yet still couldn't count enough to buy a ticket. The small denominations of the coins carried the scent of a slow afternoon market, the smell of dishwashing liquid from a busy night at a roadside eatery, and the dust from her arduous journey carrying her goods through countless streets. That weathered woman, seemingly having endured many hardships and burdened with countless worries, had imbued her money with such a complex mix of smells.

The usually noisy bus at the end of the year suddenly fell silent, broken only by the woman's brief explanations and the bus conductor's murmurs. Someone slipped him a few crisp bills to make up for the woman's outstanding debt. Others gave her a bag of snacks and a bottle of water, while some offered words of encouragement like, "As long as you're alive, you have everything. Just get home, that's all that matters. Having a home means having a Tết (Lunar New Year)..."

These journeys carry the flavor of Tet (Vietnamese Lunar New Year).

It seems each banknote is like a journey. They pass through so many places, meet so many people, wander through rice fields, enter luxurious restaurants and hotels, then hastily stop at street food stalls and roadside eateries. Or perhaps they carry the smell of medicine from hospitals, the scent of chalk dust from lecture halls, or the smell of cleaning ladies sweeping the streets late at night. But on that journey, whether old or brand new, with a hint of perfume, they all brought so much warmth and human kindness.

Now, traveling extensively on business trips, I realize that the truest essence of Tet (Vietnamese New Year) doesn't come from the vibrant colors of flowers, the fragrant aroma of incense on the eve of the new year, or the sweet taste of candied coconut or pumpkin... The scent of Tet arrives in the hustle and bustle of journeys bringing the warmth of spring to remote villages, delivering loving gifts to elderly people and children in impoverished areas; in the hurried trips past homes I can't visit because I'm on duty as a soldier; and in the peaceful atmosphere of hospitals without the blaring sirens of ambulances.

Each stop on the bus marks the end of a journey. In these moments of family togetherness, looking out the window at the clean, airy streets adorned with the vibrant colors of the national flag on the first day of the Lunar New Year, the scent of Tet becomes even more familiar and simple: it is the scent of peaceful life.

Tran Linh

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/mui-cua-tet-277179.htm