My Trung Thu's in America

As some of you know that I've been here for a long time. My first Trung Thu was nothing like those we had in Việt Nam . A few weeks before that Trung Thu, in a family celebration, my uncle brought over a box of bánh Trung Thu, which is called Moon Cakes. My mother made a batch of moon cakes for the festival. It was not a real festival for us. We did not any children with lantern around this place. Since all of the ingredients were missing, these cakes were not very "trungthu" like. My mother used a small square candy box and a small toy to make and decorate these cakes. I admit that my mother is a great baker. After that first Trung Thu, my mother started to collect ingredients for the following year's moon festival cakes. She soaked cinnamon stick (quế), anise star (hồi hương) and other spices in a small jar of wine and kept them soaked a whole year. That year the cakes were more flavorful but still in the shape of the square candy box. It was not until a few years ago I was able to purchase of Moon Cake sold in a Viet market in downtown San Jose, CA. that her cake became real moon cakes. Even that was not good enough for some people. They thought they were too dry. So last year she put a little more oil in the filling. They were not as moist as the store bought varieties, but they were better for our health. See you next time for my first public moon festival celebration in school.
Happy Tết Trung Thu.



Được sửa chữa bởi - username vào 23/02/2002 07:45

I was really moved by the way you celebrate one of the tra***ional events of our Vietnamese nation by making a special cake albeit you are thousands of miles away from us in Vietnam. Not too sure how old you are such that you are still qualified as a child to enjoy a Trung thu anymore but if you still are then I wish you a wonderful time and make even more delicous cake this year. I also hope that the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) between the US and Vietnam will be rectified soon by the US Parliment and the Vietnam Government so that more Vietnamese goods including variaty of mouth watering moon cakes labelled with "Made in Vietnam" will be exported to and sold in many Vietnamese communities in the US. Till then, your Trung Thu will be more like a real Trung thu that you as a Vietnamese should deserve, no matter where you are.
Cheers.

Thanks, huymark for your kind comments.
There are a few typos in the above posting but when I was trying in to correct them there was an error message.
There is nothing wrong with staying young. You can say that to my mother. She started it.

Back to my first public Trung Thu celebration in school. It was several years ago when I took some night courses in Mission College. It was not a Trung Thu night but Viet Student Association celebrated the festival and invited everybody. Because I was not a regular student there, I was not aware of it. They had the main hall decorated with garlands and folding paper lanterns. I saw many boxes of moon cakes. Then it was time to go to my class. From there I could hear announcements, I forgot exactly what they were because I was listening to the lecture. Then they started the music of ??oRước đèn tháng tám???:
Tết Trung Thu rước đèn đi chơi
Em rước đèn đi khắp phố phường
It was a tape of a children choir singing the song continuously.
I didn??Tt know that there was a second verse in that song until that day. My teacher went out to take a look at the activities. She went back smiling and said: ??oThey are having a lantern parade. I hope they turn the music down a little.??? After about 10 minutes, they turned the volume down. See, college students can have fun too. At break time I went down to the main hall. They were serving moon cakes to all the students, American, Vietnamese, Eastern Indians, Chinese. . . even teachers, I believe. Since I had had my dinner and didn??Tt care much about moon cakes, I went to the library. That was about it.
Tonight they might have one there again. I would like to go there to take a look, but I rather go home after work. My father might bring home lots of moon cakes from his friends. I don??Tt think my mother will make any moon cake today. We have too many so far this year.

Cannot really recall when my last Trung Thu was but the memories about the Trung thu celebration when I was still a child are still vivid in my mind. I was in a small village in Thai Binh where there were only vast rice fields running beyond the horison at the far away sky line. I must say that Trung thu celebration was the most second wanted event of the year for children like us, just after Tet nguyen dan. The preparation took a long time, normally 1 to 2 months before the event with all children practising and reheasing the tra***ional dances and cultural performance under the lead by an experienced teen in the village. The adult also participated in the event by helping the children to make bamboo star lanterns and a large lion for later dancing. They also prepared all the logistics for camping such as tents, rope etc. Even a few weeks prior to the event, children paraded in the evening to almost every single lane of the village, singing loud and beating drum to make the atmosphere so merry and thrilling.
When the big day actually came, all villages of the ward joined in a big camping and cultural performance competition. The camping was made in a large land in the centre of the ward which was normally a football ground for children. Everyone in the village, from the old to young, male or female alike, all stopped working for a few days and joined in the event by helping to make the village's tent as beautiful as possible. All families contributed their own grown produces such as grape fruits, sugar cane, pop corn and of couse various kinds of moon cakes etc which are common sights during a Trung thu. One of the most interesting thing for children was probably the lion dancing competition between different villages of the ward. Lions had to be big, colourful, nicely decorated and moving quickly to make it count. I especially liked the 2 comedians who wore a funny mask and a basket in their bellies to make them pregnant women, going ahead of the lion to clear its way. On the night of 14/8, a large cultural performance event was held on a central stage of the camping site and this was an unique chance for all talented children to show off. Of course, the adult could also participate in by singing or playing drama to earn ad***ional points for their village. That night, many children did not return to their homes but stayed in the camp and enjoyed the nights together instead. Next morning, when the hang over still lingered on, everyone had to wake up early to tidy up the camps. Further decoration could only be made in the early morning before the competition board actually visited each camp for marking. Some villages did not decorate their camps fully until the last minute so as to avoid other villages doing the same. Points were given to the beauty and style of the camp especially the gate which earned the most impression, the knotting techniques, and of course the number of star lanterns hung on the camp. Inside each camp, there must usually be a picture or statue of Uncle Ho, put right up in the middle, and an altar with lots of delicous fruits that children displayed to pay respect to him. One of the experienced teen had to welcome the competition board and showed them around the camp, explaining its theme and structure. A good presentation would earn lots of marks for the camp. Finally all the points were added up and the winner village announced. The children of the wining village were the happinest.
As the sun about to set, it was time to clear the camp site and children rushing home after a long day of activities. There at home, the adult waited for them and organised a small party within each family. All the specalities were displayed for an outdoor party . The moon then appeared gradually and shone her shade onto every home and helped them enjoy the party. She was so round and bright that night - it was wonderful ...
That is a trung thu celebration in a small village of Vietnam in the old days (more than 10 years ago) ... Not too sure if they are different now ... but I hope not.

Wow, your village had a big celebration for Trung Thu. I lived in Saigon and we had nothing like that. My mother just baked a lot of moon cakes and little piggie crackers from leftover dough. My uncles, aunts and grandparents each got a box. Especially my paternal grandpa, he would eat nothing else but hers. For us children, we would get frames of lanterns from the previous year to make new ones with new colored (American are lazy so they chop off the u in color) cellophane foils and watercolors for the decorations. On Trung Thu night we would go on parade around the neighborhood singing Trung Thu songs.
Over here there is next to nothing. Last night was Trung Thu and I actually forgot all about it. There were too much on my minds. Shakespeare, friends, dinnerõ?Ư no doubt there were other thoughts. I even took out some moon cakes and still forgot it was Trung Thu. I am such a scatterbrain. Not until my father told his grandson to go find the moon then I say to myself: õ?oWhat day is today? Oh! Itõ?Ts Monday, Trung Thu!õ?? So I went look at the moon. It was a clear beautiful night, nice and breezy. I thought I was in the mood for Beethovenõ?Ts Ode to Joy. So I went dig out the video of Beethovenõ?Ts Symphony No. 9 which was taped right after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. The conductor was Leonard Bernstein, who died two weeks or two months right after that, so that was also his last public performance. This tape was so special because it was the works from artists from Germany, Russia, Great Britain and American. There was also a German children choir, which is extremely unusual for a symphony. You only see children choir in the opera Carmen. I also realized that I need to practice my singing to sing along with the Ode to Joy. My voice is out of practice. But I did not feel like looking for the scores last night. It was somewhere on the bookshelf. Maybe tonight.

Yes, it is very true that I had a great childhood in the countryside that an urban life can never offer. However, a city child also has many other advantages especially the access to modern facilities and better education. In that sense, you are lucky to have been born in Saigon, hah.
The life in the North is greatly different from that in the South. Hope you will have a chance to visit Hanoi and the North in the future.
As you know the BTA was rectified by the US Congress yesterday and I hope the Vietnamese Parliament will do so soon on its part. The Vietnamese made moon cakes next year will be very cheap in your place ...

http://66.21.55.233/forum/topic.asp?whichpage=31&ReplyIDsNotFound=1&AllReplyIDs=1&TOPIC_ID=19058
Been there. Done that.

Hà Nội, Hà Tây, Hạ Long, Hải Dương, làng gốm Bát Tràng, 1998

cha cha, cac u noi tieng Anh nhu gio. Nguong mo wa