Tet Holiday | SAIGON GIAI PHONG NEWSPAPER

On the sixth day, I joined the stream of people hurrying to leave their hometown after the Tet holiday. When I pulled my suitcase out of the house, I really didn't want to leave. It was like "hurrying back, hurrying to leave". I didn't mind going back, I just didn't like saying "goodbye everyone, I'm leaving". The short Tet holiday always brings people endless longing and regret.

After traveling more than nine hundred kilometers, I had not yet enjoyed the family atmosphere of Tet, but had to drag my suitcase back. I really did not want to. Many people were like me, reluctant to leave. Suddenly, a feeling of sadness arose in my heart. So Tet was over? So I started a new journey, a new calendar, carefully peeling off each page, hoping that next spring, next Tet, I would return and see all my relatives again. A new journey had truly begun, leaving to return.

I miss the old Tet. The Tet of my childhood. Tet always came early. When December came, my mother would prepare for Tet. Taking advantage of the days when sales were good, she used the money she had saved up to buy the necessary things for Tet. One day it was a shirt, another day it was pants. She would collect one thing each day so that by Tet, all the children would have new clothes. I was the second youngest, so my new clothes were bought right after buying for my youngest brother. From the moment I got new clothes, I felt excited, I started counting my fingers, waiting for Tet to come so I could wear new clothes. The clothes were folded neatly, but every now and then I would touch them a little, smell the new clothes and feel happy.

The days before Tet, the excited atmosphere is even more exciting in the heart. Every house is bustling, bustling. The happiest time is when everyone in the neighborhood invites each other to clean the alley. The alley shared by my house has three houses, each house sends one person to clean the alley. The small alley that is usually bustling with children's laughter is now bustling with the sound of hoes digging grass, the sound of brooms sweeping. The atmosphere of Tet has come to the small alley.

On the last afternoon of the year, my father took a knife to the peach tree in the front yard, chose a beautiful branch, cut it to the base, and placed it in a vase neatly next to the altar. The flowers of the Kitchen Gods that my father had skillfully cut a few days before were also displayed. My father also arranged each plate of cakes and fruits on the altar, lit incense and prayed to welcome my ancestors back to celebrate with their descendants during the three days of Tet. The sound of firecrackers at the end of the year echoed somewhere in the neighborhood. Tet had truly arrived!

The year-end dinner was so warm and sacred. I still remember that atmosphere clearly. The laughter and the reminders of parents to keep their children away from bad luck during the Tet holidays.

At night, my sisters and I gathered around the pot of steaming banh chung. Tet was approaching, along with the sound of firecrackers exploding in the neighborhood, urging us to change into new clothes to celebrate the New Year. The laughter from the house next door, the crisp sound of firecrackers exploding from the firecrackers that our father hung in front of the porch. My sisters and I all rushed out into the yard, hoping for the firecrackers to explode. In the sacred moment of New Year's Eve, all of us silently made wishes. Wishing for all the best things to come to everyone, every family in the new year. After the firecrackers exploded, we went to look for the firecrackers that had not yet exploded and had fallen down, then lit the fuse to explode them again. Thinking back now, I still seem to smell the burnt, fragrant smell of the firecrackers, and unconsciously sniffed them.

My house is just a short distance from Sao Vang airport. Normally, when planes take off or land, they leave a very pleasing white halo. On the thirtieth night, the airport always shoots flares. The beams of light shoot straight up from the ground and radiate a dazzling halo. I like the airport's flares the most after every house has finished firing their fireworks. It seems to secretly announce good luck and peace in the new year. The New Year's Eve moment passes so quickly that we sit in our new clothes because we are afraid that lying down will wrinkle them. But we fall asleep and when we wake up the next morning, we find ourselves wrapped in a blanket with our new clothes. We wake up startled and try to smooth them out.

On the morning of the first day of the new year, wearing new clothes, we ran up to our parents to wish them a happy new year and to receive lucky money. The money was soaked with sweat, not new like the lucky money nowadays, and the denominations were also taken into account. Just receiving lucky money was a joy.

In the old days, Tet in the countryside often came with rain. The spring rain was small but persistent enough to make the dirt roads slippery. The wooden clogs made of xoan wood kept wanting to fly off my feet and slide along the road, making it extremely difficult to walk. But I couldn't stay still. At most, I would put on my clogs and walk barefoot, pressing my toes into the muddy ground as I walked to avoid falling. Then the second and third days of Tet passed by incredibly quickly. I was absent-minded and regretful. So I started waiting for more than three hundred days for Tet to return.

Human life is like a shadow passing through the door, in the blink of an eye I have gone more than half way through my life but Tet is always a feeling of longing, regret and melancholy. Like me, today I leave and have to wait more than three hundred days to "come back for Tet". Coming back for Tet is coming back to the moments of gathering with relatives, family, and friends. Coming back for Tet to find myself in the old days to hear a tearful feeling like Tet of years past.

CHU MINH

Quy Nhon, Binh Dinh

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