Tet slowly moves closer to us through all our senses: the smooth spring petals, the market filled with colorful goods, the birds singing bustlingly announcing Spring every morning. And especially the scent that only comes from home during Tet - A Tet season filled with love and affection again.
The scent of Tet is filled with love and affection coming through the alley
The fragrant scent of old-fashioned perfume at night wafts through the children's silky hair, wafting between laughter and jokes, dispelling all the troubles of the old year. The incense of incense weaves threads of smoke that fly high into the sky, carrying wishes for peace. The warm scent of firewood from the pot of banh chung and banh tet, where three generations gather together to create beautiful memories. Cool scents from pots of peaches, apricots, orchids, and kumquats along the yard, vases of lilies, chrysanthemums, and trays of five fruits on the ancestral altar.
And how can you miss the scent from the corner of your mother's kitchen? Not only green banh chung, pot of bamboo shoot soup, mother also makes her own jam, sweet coconut jam, clear kumquat jam, fragrant lotus seed jam... "No matter how big your child is, you are still your mother's child" - delicious dishes that are only cooked in Tet is a way for mothers to love and reunite their children from all over the world.
The scent of Tet, rich in love, guides memories, bringing each of us back to the softest corner of our hearts.
Tet is when we cannot live without each other
The scent is like an old movie, just a reminiscent breeze is enough to brush away the dust of memories. These days, walking around the streets, familiar scents continue to spread, making our hearts flutter because Tet is very close...
"Fatty meat, pickled onions, red parallel sentences, neem trees, firecrackers, green banh chung" - The typical taste of Tet cannot lack the scent of dong leaves wrapping the cake. On the night of the 27th and 28th of Tet, adults and children gather around the red fire. The cake pot has just cooked, the dong leaves turn dark yellow, separating each layer of leaves inside is a hot, fragrant green banh chung...
In the last days of the year in Vietnam, every house has a faint scent of fragrant old water, spreading all the way to the beginning of the alley; like the lingering scent of spring in the coldness of the last days of the year. Mixed in that peaceful smell, there is no shortage of the bouquet of pear flowers, peach blossoms or apricot blossoms that are gradually blooming. The days approaching Tet are even more characterized by the warm, fragrant scent of agarwood spread from the Vietnamese tradition of gratitude to grandparents and ancestors.
Even though each of us has grown up and left our familiar home; But it's still hard to forget the happiness of sitting next to the red fire cooking banh chung, inhaling the fragrant perfume water, the scent of Tet flowers or the warm scent of agarwood. Perhaps, the scent of Tet is not simply felt by the sense of smell, but is the feeling from the heart when the moment of reunion is so close.
Tet with a cup of Doi Dep tea
It seems that the slow pace of life on the late afternoons of the year makes the taste of Tet clearer. We have plenty of time to watch the house gradually change color. My mother said "seeing flowers is seeing Tet", taking care of flowers and playing with them is also a form of art to cultivate the soul. Because when blooming, flowers reveal the soul of the person who arranged them.
Enjoying tea and looking at flowers at the end of the year becomes an excuse for the family to gather and review the turmoil of the year. Tea Pair Slippers Braised in a kettle, marinated since autumn, caught in dew and sunlight to stay warm in the cold spring weather. Flowers are arranged and trimmed when passing the 10th day of the December month, so that they can be nurtured, shaped, and budded for Tet.
So normally, Tet comes with a solemn bowl of daffodils on the altar, or in the petals of peach trees and peach blossoms. The yard is filled with pink azalea and yellow raspberry daisies. Tet is also a leisurely time to make jam and cakes; Pack a few banh chung for the New Year's Eve feast.
The Tet holiday filled with love is still as simple as it is, if people's hearts are peaceful enough to feel it. When the house is filled with the scent of daffodils, Dien grapefruit, Buddha's hand, incense, a cup of strong brewed tea... that's when spring officially arrives...
Doi Dep would like to wish you to enjoy the days leading up to Tet with warmth, reunion and happiness with your loved ones!
