The smell of Tet lingers in each person when they remember their hometown. There is a smell of Tet that we can smell, but sometimes we have to listen to our hearts to feel it.
Every year when December is approaching, my heart is filled with excitement, anticipation, and longing for the Tet holidays in my beloved poor hometown. There are so many invisible yet evocative Tet smells that awaken my distant childhood memories, flickering and appearing.
The smell of Tet lingers in each person when remembering a beloved old countryside. That is the smell of the kitchen cooking banh chung. By the glowing fire, sitting watching the pot of banh chung for grandmother, for mother, the faint smell of dong leaves ripening makes us feel nostalgic and moved.
Tet is coming, the fragrance of old coriander leaves awakens the soul.
In the past, cosmetics were scarce, so women often boiled a pot of coriander leaf water to bathe at the end of the year, partly to make it fragrant to welcome the new year, partly to get rid of the bad luck of the past year. The warm, lingering scent of old coriander leaf water lingers in our souls forever.
The happiest thing is to return home to celebrate Tet. The Tet holidays of childhood are always warm and leave many memories. The altar - the place to worship ancestors during Tet in every family is always warm with the scent of incense, the scent of remembrance, reminding of ancestors.
New Year's Eve, a sacred moment, my father lit incense on the solemn altar, respectfully sending his faith in the future, in a new year of prosperity, health, and abundance.
In the scent of the New Year, I smell the countryside and garden emanating from the tray of five fruits. Oranges, grapefruits, green bananas, mangoes, papayas... all seem to emit a gentle fragrance, wafting into the air.
There are so many other smells of Tet, too many to mention. There is the smell of Tet that we can smell, but sometimes we have to calm down, communicate with life, with people to be able to feel it. For example, the smell of family reunion. That smell of Tet is filled with affection, warm in the heart. All the sourness and bitterness of everyday life seem to disappear, now there is only the sweetness of family love, of happiness.
Oh the smell of Tet! Although Tet still comes to my loved ones every year, my soul still yearns for distant memories. There, there is a peaceful childhood sky filled with the scent of Tet. My mind seems to still be absorbed in searching for the passionate scent of the old Tet, despite the many scents of the new Tet calling.
LE THANH VAN