Cultural Post #3

[Mae Ariel Harter]

Tết (Lunar New Year) is a major holiday in Vietnam. It's an extremely important holiday where almost everyone returns to their hometown to reunite with their extended family. My friend from Vietnam said that during this time, Sài Gòn is a dead city. The population crazily plummets and even the air quality improves because everyone left the city to return to their hometown. Being in the US and in college, I cannot return home for tết and so missed out on a lot of good food that is only available during the holiday. When I visited Boston during Spring Break, my sister and I tried making Bánh tét a Southern Vietnamese dish that one must eat during New Years. We miserably failed and ended up just going to a bakery to buy one. The process of making it though, I think taught me a lot. It was extremely time consuming and difficult to make. The reason why it's a dish associated with New Years is because the women in the family would gather around to make it together as a bonding activity during the holiday. Making it made me better appreciate the effort that goes into the food that I've always had readily available during New Years.