Dear power supply

The Lunar New Year celebrations have just passed in my hometown. The warm memories of family reunions, coffee gatherings with loved ones, and first-day reunions with friends still linger throughout the neighborhood, the streets, and the village roads.

On the afternoon of the 30th, we offer prayers to welcome our ancestors home to celebrate Tet with their descendants, and then offer prayers to bid them farewell on the 4th day of Tet. This brings back nostalgic memories of Tet celebrations of the past.

I remember when my father was still alive, on the fourth day of Tet (Lunar New Year), during the ancestral worship ceremony, he would always tell my mother to prepare a table with cakes, fruits, incense, and flowers to offer to the well. After worshipping our ancestors in the main house, my father would pray at the well. When the incense was almost burnt out, he would scoop up a few buckets of water and water the plants for the new year, hoping to give them strength for the flourishing of flowers and fruits.

Near the center of Phan Thiet city, our well has been a part of our family for over seventy years. The well is only about four meters deep and has a year-round water supply. Our house is near the sea, so the well is always full, but the water isn't very sweet. The water is still very clear, but only suitable for household use. For drinking, in the distant past, our family had to use a different water source.

In my fading memories, I still recall many aspects of our family's past closely connected to that well. My parents worked in the business of processing fish sauce, making fermented fish paste, and drying fish... countless steps required water from our well. I imagine that without that well, my parents would have had to spend an enormous amount of money to obtain clean water, which would have supported our family's business for many decades.

Once, our shack caught fire, but thanks to the water from our well and rainwater reservoir, and with the timely help of our neighbors, the shack, where my parents stored their barrels of salt and fish sauce, survived for many years afterward.

Following the tradition of my extended family, I maintain the custom of offering sacrifices to my ancestors on the fourth day of Tet (Lunar New Year). Remembering the tradition of three people offering sacrifices in the past, my wife and I prepared an altar with incense, flowers, cakes, and fruits to offer to the well. By maintaining the custom of offering sacrifices to the well at the beginning of the new year, my family preserves some of the traditions passed down from our forefathers.

I cherish our family's old well just as my parents cherished our family's water source many decades ago. Today, with the pace of construction and expansion of new roads, urban areas, and residential zones, perhaps only a few families still retain these old wells in the inner city of Phan Thiet.

Our family kept the old well, even though its purpose has changed considerably since then. Following the tradition of offering prayers at the well at the beginning of the year, I am filled with nostalgia for my parents when they were still alive. My parents cherished the source of water that sustained our extended family. And now, I always remember that, valuing the water source as I cherish the stream that silently flows through our family's life today.

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