In the old days of Tet, the cake mold and stone mortar "ran" around the neighborhood.

The sisters took advantage of the evening to use the charcoal stove to simmer jam. Using about three stoves, simmering for two nights was enough to make all kinds of jam. The next day, they lined a sieve with newspaper, took out the jam and let it dry before storing it in a paper bag.

Tet is for planting cotton, making pickles, and making pineapple jam...

When Tet comes, every family in the neighborhood plants several types of cotton, and then the whole neighborhood takes turns.

It seems that the first thing to prepare for Tet is to plant cotton. Around the beginning of November, my father planted marigolds and dahlias. Then, several families in the small neighborhood took turns, one family asked for marigolds from another family, another family asked for sedums, chrysanthemums, and cockscombs from another family. They asked back and forth until finally, everyone in the neighborhood had all kinds of flowers without having to buy them.

Then around mid-December, start picking mai leaves. Picking early or late depends on the weather, timed to pick just in time for Tet.

After the 23rd, after the Kitchen Gods have been sent to Heaven, the Tet atmosphere becomes more bustling. Men clean bronze objects, women prepare pickled vegetables. Bronze objects on the altar are taken down and exposed to the sun. Star fruit and tamarind are picked, crushed, and rubbed onto bronze objects, then rubbed with rags. Keep rubbing until the bronze objects shine brightly.

Pickled shallots, onions, papaya, carrots, kohlrabi... are sliced ​​and dried in the sun, then soaked in fish sauce or vinegar and sugar to make sweet and sour. The fragrant smell of onions and shallots fills the whole house, from the kitchen to the kitchen.

Coconut jam - Illustration: Artisan Hien Minh

Then when women are busy making rice paper and stewing jam, men are busy going to the graves (that is, going to the graves to weed, clean, whitewash...).

The sisters took advantage of the evening to use the charcoal stove to simmer jam. Using about three stoves, simmering for two nights was enough to make all kinds of jam. The next day, they lined a sieve with newspaper, took out the jam and let it dry before storing it in a paper bag.

At that time, we did not use food coloring, the jam color was from pandan leaves, purple leaves, turmeric... Looking at the trays of jam drying in the yard with beautiful colors, I felt joyful.

Then Mom sent the youngest child to pop the sticky rice to make banh in. There was only one popcorn machine in the whole area, so the child waited all day for his turn. After popping the rice, he went to grind it finely and brought it back.

At night, my mother cooked brown sugar and crushed ginger, making it fragrant. Then she took a tray, poured in sticky rice flour and sugar, and ground them until the sugar and sticky rice flour blended together and became soft. Then the mother and children, the adults and the children wrapped them in colored paper until late at night. Every ten of them tied into a package. The result was colorful packages of cakes.

Group 2A Road, Thanh Minh Village, Dien Lac Commune, Dien Khanh District, Khanh Hoa Province

The whole neighborhood shares the stone mill for grinding beans and the cake mold.

To cook tofu. The only stone mill in the whole neighborhood was Mrs. Tu’s house, with a handle for two people to grind. Grinding soybeans to cook tofu required two people because it was very heavy to grind, not as light as grinding rice flour to make rice paper.

The whole neighborhood took turns going to Mrs. Tu's house to grind beans. Mrs. Tu called down: "Ms. Mu, please soak the beans. When you finish grinding these beans, it will be your turn."

Mrs. Tu's house was full of people coming and going. The old dog would stand up and bark a few times when it saw someone coming, then slowly go out to lie down in the sun.

In the neighborhood, every house has many children, every house has a lot of work to do because every house is excited about Tet. One person peels tamarinds so they can make cakes, one person grinds flour, one person wipes banana leaves and strips bamboo strips.

Closer to Tet, we wrap banh tet around the evening of the 28th, not earlier for fear of spoiling. Even though we don't wrap it early, banana leaves and string are already prepared on the tray.

Furthermore, Tet cannot be without banh thuan, its sweet, fragrant smell wafting throughout the house is extremely seductive.

But not every house in the neighborhood has a banh thuan mold, so the mold is bustling around the neighborhood.

Fireworks announce the arrival of spring

"Spring has come, spring has come, look how the rays of spring have come, spreading everywhere. Spring has come, in the fields, many farmers have stopped plowing and are happy with spring... Spring has come, spring has come, we sing loudly to welcome spring, spring has come...". Oh my god, it was already bustling, but the singing in the Akai machine was bustling as if afraid people wouldn't know, as if it needed to announce: Spring has come.

Spring has come - The spring announcement of musician Minh Ky echoed in the ears, making the chest tremble. The song added joy to do so many things, to prepare so many things. Just because of a habit in the thinking of every family: Tet must be had, Tet must be complete and well-organized.

People's hearts are excited and thrilled because the Spring atmosphere is everywhere, because every now and then we hear firecrackers going off, then every now and then we hear firecrackers going off. Oh, which house in the upper neighborhood is burning a long string of firecrackers, it's so fierce. Which house in the outer neighborhood is buying some strange kind of firecrackers that explode so slowly that it makes me feel sleepy.

The children in the neighborhood heard that a house was setting off firecrackers and ran over. When they finished, they rushed in to pick up the leftover firecrackers. Mon, Teo the dwarf, and Ti Mop all had a bag of leftover firecrackers in their pockets. Every now and then, they would hear them set off a bang, and every now and then, they would hear another bang. Some children were not allowed to play with the other children in the neighborhood, and were ordered to do this and that.

Run to Mrs. Tram's shop to buy this for your mom. Run to the market to buy this for your sister. Run to the garden to dig some turmeric for me to pound and add to the flour bowl so the cake will have some color. The color is still pale... Sit here and beat the dough until it rises, what kind of sticky flour is this? How can the cake be delicious?

Oh my god, the little girl was so tired that she didn't dare to argue, but her face was sullen. But after a while, it was gone. Just looking at the firecrackers rolled up on the table made her feel excited and nauseous. She said to her father: "This one is for New Year's Eve, Dad. This one is for the afternoon of the 30th to welcome the ancestors. This one is for New Year's Eve, and this one is for the morning of the 1st, Dad." Her father said: "What a girl, crazy about firecrackers."

Whatever we do, we have to finish everything by the afternoon of the 30th. After the ceremony to welcome our ancestors home for Tet, my mother prepares a tray so that at exactly midnight, my father can perform the New Year's Eve ceremony.

Boom...boom...boom...Boom... The strong smell of firecrackers. The aroma of onions and pickled shallots. The aroma of banh thuan. The aroma of apricot and marigold flowers. The aroma of incense. The smell of Tet... in the past...

All of it has become a memory, with three words: Tet in the past. The little girl who loved to light firecrackers with a wrinkled face because she was ordered to run around all the time, she still remembers the old days.

My heart is absent-mindedly remembering the old Tet. I remember the feeling of holding a broom and standing in the yard for a long time, not wanting to sweep away the firecrackers after the New Year's Eve offering. I remember my mother's voice calling , "Quickly sweep the yard and come here so I can give you orders. Why are you standing out there all the time, child?"

Tet memories in the land of nostalgia

What is Tet in your memories? Is it the days of childhood with grandparents and parents? Or the days before Tet when the whole family is busy shopping and preparing offerings to the ancestors? What dishes make you feel Tet just by hearing the name?...

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