At the end of the year, I rushed home after the last working session. Sealing the property, closing the door, everything is done. At 2 p.m., I ran home, prepared a meal for the afternoon of the 30th with the whole family.
The road was much quieter than usual, and families far away had returned to their hometowns a few days earlier. The office was also closed, ending the last working session from yesterday. Everyone was at home preparing for the year-end meal, only the market was still busy. Those who haven't finished shopping for food for a few days of Tet take advantage of buying this afternoon.
An old smell passed by on an old, creaky bicycle. The tiny, white flowers and tiny clusters of fruits vibrate with every beat. It is not clear when the bouquets of old coriander flowers have become the image of Tet. There are pink peach blossoms, there are ripe kumquats, there are purple violets but there is no old scent, spring seems to be missing and Tet does not seem to have come yet.
Photo: Lam Linh
The old scented car stopped spinning and parked on the sidewalk. Grandmothers and mothers were surrounded by little people, and soon there were almost all the scented flower carts. On Tet days, the smell of old sells better than vegetables in the market, more than peach kumquat because every family buys at least a few bundles to cook year-end bath water for the whole family. The elegant, gentle and warm aroma of the smell spreads throughout the street, soothing the cold of winter. The smell is peeking out in the market lanes, radiating in all directions. I also bought a bunch of scents even though I knew how my mother was at home. The bundle of old smells tied behind the back of the car emits a fragrant fragrance along the way home.
After a busy afternoon with rice and water, cleaning the house, Mom curled up all the bunches of old smells in a large pot of water and put them on the stove. The whole family took turns bathing in the year-end with coriander water. The smell for boiling bath water must be an old smell, which has produced small clusters of green fruits, sporadic with a few beautiful white flowers. The old smell gives a very deep aroma and lingers for a long time. After taking a shower, the whole family smelled a warm scent, faintly smelling until a few days of Tet before the smell disappeared. Bathing in coriander water at the end of the year to wash away all the worries, worries, and fatigue of an old year, welcome a new year with a lot of joy and hope.
Over the past time, life has changed a lot, the way to celebrate Tet is also much simpler, but the custom of bathing at the end of the year with coriander water is still preserved. Only once a year in the last days of the year, Hanoi people are immersed in the very unique fragrance of old coriander leaves.
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I wrap myself in the scent, let the fragrance dispel the bad luck of the old year. The scent is like a leaf in a sauna, making us clear our minds, and the whole body is relaxed and relaxed. The scent caresses gently. An old year is coming, a new year is approaching, for more wonderful things to come. The smell of old at the end of the year is like a warm mother's heart, like spring is coming to the porch.
According to VnE