The smell of Tet

Illustration.

The full and complete Tet is thanks to the mother’s hand, relying on her mother. I remember over the night of the 30th, my mother was busy making offerings to ancestors, making fruit cakes for New Year’s Eve. My hometown has a traditional sweet cake, every house makes it to offer New Year’s Eve. I can’t forget the sweet aroma of the cake, it lingers in my memory every spring. The smell of fragrant sticky rice, molasses, and spicy ginger mingled together, spreading throughout the house. I call it the smell of union members because it pulls us together, picks up a bowl of hot cake from my mother, blows it up and brings it to my mouth to bite, the aroma of the cake covered with sweet honey melts in the corner of my mouth. . Dad said that the cake is the crystallization of the essence of heaven and earth, of glutinous rice, sugarcane and ginger combined to make a sweet and fragrant cake. Offering cakes on the 30th night to the ancestors to pray for a sweet, fragrant, and full year.

The scent of incense from the altar radiates softly, spreading throughout the cozy room. My parents and my two sisters put their hands together respectfully in front of the altar, New Year’s Eve is a sacred moment that our family has witnessed together, in this small house, throughout our innocent childhood.

I remember a lot of pictures of Binh Da firecrackers hanging outside the pomelo tree, waiting for the clock to hit O o’clock, Dad will burn it. At that time, the state did not ban the burning of firecrackers, so every house prepared a few rooms, and the whole neighborhood burned. How can we forget the sound of firecrackers bouncing from all sides of the house, listening to the sound of New Year’s Eve fireworks is so busy. Our children shouted and clapped their hands non-stop. The sound of firecrackers, the smell of firecrackers, and the shells of firecrackers have been deeply imprinted in my memory, it evokes an indescribable feeling, both excited, happy and sad at the same time. Sad not knowing where anymore. The smell of the old New Year was fully recalled with the presence of the smell of Binh Da firecrackers that day, so much so that it followed me into a dream of panic, thinking I was a baby once more, looking forward to the night of 30 years. father burned his ears. The sound of firecrackers in the village below bustling to welcome Tet is a part of our children’s memories that day.

Perhaps, as people get older, people often live with more memories, longing for the poor Tet days that are filled with warm and happy friendship. Spring flower beds, Tet fireworks, fragrant cake trays, 30th night incense… all are the scents of Tet reunion, full of love, mother!./.