In response to Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day, on the morning of April 22nd, Hue Monuments Conservation Center held the exhibition of and lectured on the manuscript of the Tale of Kieu of the Nguyen royal family at Dai Cung Mon (the Great Palace Gate), Hue Citadel.

In recent years, a garden of more than 30 square meters, which belongs to Ms. Tran Phuong Trang in Tay Loc Ward (Hue City), has provided a regular source of vegetables for her family. By using Styrofoam boxes and plastic pots, she grows plenty of kinds of vegetables, including: lettuce, cabbage leaves, cilantro, cucumber, and bitter melon, etc.

“What a pity. I didn’t have a chance to stop by the city of yellow apricot blossoms (ochna integerrima) for a check-in.” It was a message I received from a tourist acquaintance when she and her family just had a north-south backpacking trip after a long ceasing time due to Covid-19.

Every year, around the 20th of the 12th lunar month, just before Kitchen Gods Day, we the children in the city center were sent to the family lineage house on the slope of Ha Khe Hill near Thien Mu Pagoda to visit our grandma and helped her prepare for Tet since my parents were too busy to come.

At the Thai Family Ancestral House, Prof. Dr. Thai Kim Lan’s family had prepared banh chung, banh tet, phap lam, and phu the cakes from the previous day. After finding a satisfactory bamboo pole, the homeowner would perform a ceremony to worship the ancestors and then arrange incense table, candle, betel nut, wine, etc. in front of the yard to begin the ritual. Red couplets would also be prepared in advance and written in a conventional calligraphy style. In a dignified and joyful atmosphere to welcome the new year, the bamboo pole will be erected with the joyful jingle of the bell hanging from the top of the bamboo pole. The bamboo pole will celebrate Tet with the family and neighborhood until it is lowered on the 7th of January (Lunar Calendar) when everyone goes back to work in the new year.