Busy preparing for Tet (Lunar New Year)

As the weather turns cooler and the sun gradually warms up after the 15th day of the 12th lunar month, it's time for every household to start preparing for Tet (Lunar New Year).

The most striking simple beauty in the days leading up to Tet (Lunar New Year) is the sight of people busily preparing sticky rice and beans for making banh tet and banh phong (traditional Vietnamese rice cakes), draining ponds to catch fish for storage… and, of course, sweeping cobwebs, washing clothes, and tidying up their yards. Many people, after the full moon ceremony in the twelfth lunar month, take the opportunity to prepare their living spaces to welcome Tet. As Tet approaches, many families take the time to thoroughly clean their homes. House cleaning is a familiar task throughout the year, but it is usually done more meticulously and enthusiastically during Tet to welcome good fortune and luck.

Ms. Thi Muoi neatly stacked the firewood in the corner of her yard to make the house look tidy for the New Year. Photo: MOC TRA

While helping her children and grandchildren clean the yard, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Dang (81 years old), residing in Tan Tien hamlet, Chau Thanh commune, slowly said: "Every year, my family maintains a familiar routine in order from the 12th-13th of the 12th lunar month, which is picking apricot blossom leaves, sweeping cobwebs, then offering prayers on the full moon, and in the following days, washing mosquito nets, blankets, curtains... Around the 20th of Tet, we prepare jars and containers for washing and drying to make pickled onions and cabbage... to eat during Tet."

Ms. Tran Kim Ngoc, daughter of Mrs. Dang, is cleaning baskets and trays in preparation for drying mustard greens for pickling. According to Ms. Ngoc, although she and her sisters have all started their own families and live separately, they take turns returning home to help their parents with household chores during Tet (Lunar New Year). It's not just Mrs. Dang's house, Ms. Ngoc's house, and her grandchildren's house; the whole neighborhood is bustling with activity as people clean their houses. Some houses have freshly painted fences, while others have yards filled with mosquito nets and blankets washed and dried early in the morning… Along the rural roads in some communes, people are spraying water to wash their yards, wiping windows, and hanging colorful lanterns in front of their houses, creating a lively atmosphere.

After cleaning the yard and burning all the dry leaves, Mrs. Thi Muoi, residing in Minh Phong hamlet, Binh An commune, bent down to neatly stack the firewood in a corner of her yard. According to Mrs. Muoi, her family usually celebrates the Khmer New Year on a larger scale, with the Lunar New Year being a time when they focus on keeping the house clean to welcome the new year. "A thorough cleaning of the house to welcome the new year is to ward off bad luck and welcome good fortune," with that thought in mind, Mrs. Muoi and her children and grandchildren have almost completed their preparations for the Lunar New Year of the Year of the Horse.

The small road along the Kha Ma canal, from the top of Ca Dao hill in Minh Phong hamlet to the center of the commune, is lined with lush green vegetable beds, clusters of bright red sausages drying in the sun, and vibrant pink bougainvillea vines. There are many bridges crossing the river, and occasionally, on the railings, woven mats are hung out to dry in preparation for Tet (Lunar New Year). The small village, with houses close together, is filled with children playing games, and adults passing by on their motorbikes often tease each other, invite each other to shop for Tet, or stop to share seedlings of gourds or eggplants… all creating a warm atmosphere in the days leading up to Tet.

Three bundles of split reeds are coiled on a drying rack. Mrs. Nguyen Thi Lan, residing in Minh Phong hamlet, shared that these are the reeds used to wrap banh tet (traditional Vietnamese rice cakes) offered to ancestors during the New Year. Her daughters, who live in Thanh Loc commune, Chau Thanh district, and Rach Gia city, have arranged to meet on the 28th of Tet (Lunar New Year) to wrap and cook the cakes together, share a meal, and then take the cakes home before reuniting on the 1st day of Tet.

In the Ta Nien mat-making village, no one weaves mats like they used to, but the hearts of the people here are still intertwined like the reeds that make up the Ta Nien mat. Carrying several jars of shrimp paste to a neighbor's house to dry in the sun, Ms. Mai, residing in Vinh Thanh hamlet, Binh An commune, confided: "The mat-making craft is gone, but the way of life, the way of working together, the way of making fish sauce, pickled vegetables, and pickled cabbage together, is still the same as the way the people here used to share and make mats."

Along the road in Vinh Hoa 1 hamlet, the section from Ta Nien market towards Ba Thang Hai road in Binh An commune is also bustling with the Tet atmosphere. Several jars of shrimp paste are neatly arranged in front of houses, and trays of dried fish are left there for neighbors to look after while the owners are away. Passing by Mrs. Tu Van's house, the middle of the hamlet is even more lively with several trays of puffed rice cakes displayed in the sun. Mrs. Van divides her puffed rice cakes into two types: one is traditional puffed rice cakes, and the other is made by slicing ripe bananas thinly and placing them evenly on the cakes before drying them in the sun for about one day. Mrs. Van cheerfully says, "It feels like something is missing during Tet without puffed rice cakes. Every New Year's Eve, my family bakes puffed rice cakes to offer as a sacrifice to welcome the new year."

Every year, Mr. Nguyen Van Mui, residing in Vinh Hoa Hung commune, cleans the ditches and the raised beds of his durian orchard, trims some cabbage, a few eggplant plants, and some herbs. On the 23rd day of the lunar month, he drains the pond to catch fish and shares them with his siblings for Tet (Lunar New Year). Usually, Mr. Mui doesn't start by raising small fish fry. Instead, around the beginning of the 10th lunar month, he buys some farmed snakehead fish, carp, and grass carp from his neighbors and domesticates them in natural conditions to make the fish meat tastier.

This family tradition and way of life has been maintained for generations. And we grew up surrounded by the way our elders lived, a life that was both free-spirited like the river and warm like the fertile alluvial soil. No matter where we go or what we do, the connection we feel in the days leading up to Tet (Lunar New Year) always draws us back home to share a meal together, longing to breathe in the smoke from the kitchen and smell the braised pork with eggs of the New Year's Eve feast.

MOC TRA

Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/tat-bat-don-tet-a475838.html