The last afternoons of the year are always the busiest. If you don't believe me, just stop by a few grocery stores and see for yourself.
Sweets and preserves spill out onto the shop's porch. Candies and snacks are packed in large cardboard boxes, offering a wide variety for customers to choose from. There are both domestic and imported sweets and snacks. Besides sweets, there are also dried fruits and premium nuts. Prices are clearly marked on each item, so customers can browse freely and buy whatever they like. The offerings are already packaged, beautifully and conveniently, saving customers the trouble of buying them and then wondering how to arrange them. Nowadays, you can find anything; the important thing is whether you have money or not. Just go to the shop, choose what you like, and put it on the altar. Quick, easy, and beautiful. You can't possibly make it as beautiful as someone else's. Even the gold leaf paper for offerings is carefully folded by the sellers to be visually appealing, in the shape of lotus flowers or phoenix tails… you can choose whatever you like and put it on the altar without having to think about how to arrange it beautifully. As a result, the process of cleaning and arranging the altar is much simpler now than it used to be. Busy, huh? No problem! Just dedicate a day to cleaning the house, then rush to the shop in the evening, choose something you like, and bring it home to place on the altar. Closer to Tet, buy a fruit platter and a vase of flowers, and you're all set. Women breathe a sigh of relief, thinking, "Thank goodness there are shops, otherwise it would be exhausting!"
Therefore, the shop is crowded with customers every afternoon. Some choose cakes and candies, others choose offerings, and the elderly women carefully select tablecloths for the altar. Well, it's Tet (Vietnamese New Year), after all; they have to replace the old tablecloth with a new one to make it bright, clean, and beautiful to welcome their ancestors back for the holiday. Then they have to polish the incense burners to make them shine. The elegance of the altar depends on that bronze incense burner set. Not every family has one of these on their altar. It's like a family heirloom, passed down from generation to generation. Its value lies in that, not in its price.
I love wandering the streets on those late afternoons at the end of the year, just to breathe in the bustling atmosphere and feast my eyes on the vibrant colors of the gift wrapping paper. It's not easy to find these things on ordinary days. And the excitement only lasts for a few days, maybe a week or so. So I take advantage of the opportunity to wander around, see and hear to my heart's content. It's not that I'm idle and have nothing to do, it's just that I have a peculiar habit of remembering special scenes so that when I'm older, I can look back and exclaim: "Ah, Tet was like this back then, like this..."
Perhaps it's because I'm an introverted person that I often reminisce about the old days. This habit has its advantages. Honestly, comparing Tet (Vietnamese New Year) when I was a little kid to now, the difference is like night and day. Back then, there weren't countless candies and sweets displayed in all kinds and colors like there are now. Just a few types of hard candy (the kind kids nowadays wouldn't even take), some homemade coconut jam and pumpkin jam, a few homemade rice cakes and sandwiches. That's it. That's it. And that's if you're well-off, because if you're poor, that's not enough. That's all, yet kids look forward to Tet all year, especially in these last days of the year. They have no mind for studying; the words just sink into their heads. They meet up to talk about Tet, which candies are the best, how much lucky money they'll get, what they'll buy after Tet, and whether their moms have bought them new clothes yet (even if the new clothes are just school uniforms – new clothes for Tet and for school). It's even more exciting than for adults. Even kids look forward to Tet these days, but not just to eat candy or wear new clothes, but simply because they get a break from school, get to travel , and receive lots of lucky money...
That's it, remembering Tet in the old days, comparing it to Tet now, I see how different it is, and then I suddenly realize how quickly time flies. If I told my children about it now, they wouldn't be able to imagine it. That's why I like to wander around and admire Tet, because who knows, in a few decades when I'm old, there might not be Tet anymore, or if there is, people will just go traveling instead of preparing offerings and making offerings. Every era is different, so what remains in memory is something beautiful and precious. Remembering helps me appreciate the years that have passed. Remembering reminds me to always cherish every moment in life, because what comes and goes, what's gone can never return. So I must cherish the present moments I have. They seem ordinary, but when they're gone, you can't go back.
So every year at the end of the year, I wander all over the streets looking at the candies and sweets. Just looking, and then inhaling the scent of Tet. These days the streets are at their most vibrant and colorful. And the scent of candies and sweets, oh my, it's been as fragrant as ever since I was a child…
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