Tet
It’s the 26 of January - 5 days before Vietnamese Lunar New Year (aka Tet). Since I came to Australia, I tend to welcome this special occasion with emotional reactions. Things like “It’s been 3 years since the last time I celebrated Tet with my family. I miss Tet so much”. This year my emotion has evolved 😄 (I guess). I kind of have a mixed feeling for Tet. On the one hand, I keep imagining what would it be if I were home on Tet, quite predictably I know I would help my parents cleaning, re-organising stuff, groceries shopping, cooking, eating, visiting relatives and surely experiencing a taste of disappointment when Tet is about to end. These are exactly what I did every single year on Tet. On the other hand, I feel quite interesting observing (virtually) how everyone is briskly preparing for Tet in Vietnam. I’ve seen my friend posting how she made Chung cake (our traditional cake made with sticky rice, mung bean and pork, all wrapped in banana leaves). I’ve seen Instagram reels about my friends going back home after many months or even years of working away. Flowers, yes. How could I forget it? Northern Vietnamese likes to display peach or plum flowers on Tet. As a consequence, I’ve seen people selling and showing how beautiful their flowers are on Facebook. I was so familiar with all of these. It’s like watching a movie that I knew all the twists and the plots in advance.
A conventional judgement people normally put on expats is the longer they stay oversea, the more their memories about their country tradition and culture will fade away. I disagree with that. I actually think expats would never forget their tradition no matter how long they stay oversea, they just choose to show their feelings differently.
The longer I stay in Sydney, the more I would like to enjoy a “real Tet” with my family. I am living in Cabramatta - a Vietnamese community in Sydney where Asian food and drinks are just in a walking distance. They sell Chung cake, gio, cha (Vietnamese sausages) in every shop. They also have lion dances and fireworks few days before and during Lunar New Year’s Eve. However, it’s still not the Tet that I remember. Coming from the a mountainous area in Northern Vietnam, I didn’t see lion dance during Tet, I didn’t see red couplets during Tet either. We celebrate Tet in our own unique way with our own type of cuisine. Living abroad has helped me recall all of these memories and reinforce the uniqueness in my local culture. If I hadn’t come to Sydney, I would have never treasured the specialty about Tet that much.
One of the questions I get asked every year when calling my relatives on Tet is “Have you forgotten Tet yet?”, how could I forget a tradition that I repeatedly follow every year in a very specific order for 24 years? The fact that I have just listed thoroughly what I know about Tet has already proved I haven’t forgotten a single thing. Our adult minds would work better than we thought, wouldn’t they?
I’ve asked few of my friends who are studying oversea, whether they miss home or not. The common answer is they don’t really miss home but they wish to be physically home with their family. So I guess next time if I had a chance to ask an expat about Tet, instead of asking them “Do you miss home?” I would prefer to ask them “Do you wish to be home right now?”
