The Mid-Autumn Festival

Foreword
Back then, it was very exciting news as I learned from my English professor that an essay of mine was chosen to be presented by the English Composition Program at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania in the Write the Ship 1996-1997: A Journal of College Writing.

Since English is a second language, I never once thought nor dreamt of having my essay for publication, not even in the school journal. So, the news came as a surprise. I honestly did not think of my writing presentable due to my lacking in sentence structure and grammar skills. Even today, I’m still continuing to learn in mastering the language. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that I was and I'm now glad to see that my essay is being shared with a larger audience, not just for the pride in having it published.

Looking back, I realize that I had tried to capture the essence of life in my writing besides the norms of story telling and creative writing for the sake of assignment grading. And it had become a trademark in my writing. Using sincere words from the heart, my hope is to reflect a sense of understanding with the readers who share the same feelings and life.

So, enjoy! And happy reading…

Write the Ship 1996-1997: A Journal of College Writing
Presented by the English Composition Program
at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania
edited by Kim van Alkemade

The essay chosen from Basic Writing exhibits many sophisticated College Writing skills, including effective use of supporting sources and a strong, clear argument. While the writer continues to develop her mastery of sentence structure and grammar, I hope readers will appreciate both the content of her work and the accomplishment her essay represents.

- An excerpt from Introduction to Write the Ship
by Kim van Alkemade,
Director of Composition English Department,
Shippensburg University

The Mid-Autumn Festival
Written by M. Nguyen for Prof. Stewart's
Fall 1996 Writing 100 Course

[Preview of the Original Publication(.pdf)]

There was not much going on in a small quarter near the “old market” in Saigon, Vietnam. The majority of the people in this quarter were made up of the laboring class. Everybody seemed busy with their daily lives; they worked hard without interruption all day long to make sure that there was enough food to feed their families. No matter how busy they were, they never forgot to celebrate the mid-autumn festival in the eighth month of the Lunar year. Annually, this festival is celebrated in the honor of the god of the moon.

Oo…oo...oo… A long siren sound, coming from the nearby harbor, signaled the beginning of a new day. Through the door in each house, there the flickering of the light from the oil-lamp. The children, crawling out of their beds, joined with the other members in the family to gather around the rice pot. The chilly wind in the morning blew off their thin piece of clothes to uncover the flatted bellies which clung nearly to their backs because the rice and water from last night did not last for long. Sometimes, the kids did not have any food, and they had to carry their empty stomachs to school. Around six o’clock, the quarter came to life. The street was filled with noises of the children who yelled and called each other to walk to school. In the meantime, the adults got ready to go to work as a porter or a small scale seller of food at the market. After the kids and the adults went off to school and work, the quarter was left behind with the quiet daily life of the elderly group. The elder males gathered to play chess, smoke cigarettes, and drink tea while the elder females dried coconut shells under the sun. The dried coconut shells were used in place of charcoals for cooking.

On the way to school, the kids were attracted by the mooncake and the lantern shops on two sides of the street. Their eyes and noses glued onto the glass displays of the mooncakes and the varieties of the hanging lanterns up above their heads. The fragrance of the cake was enough to make their mouths water. Standing in front of the shop, they dreamed about having a delicious mooncake or a colorful lantern on the night of the festival. Although, they themselves knew that their parents could not afford to buy it for them. Still, the kids comforted themselves by just looking at those things. But not for long, the store owners drove them away. The kids hurried off the place, and they ran to be on time for school. In class, they constantly thought about the mooncake when the math teacher drew the square on the blackboard. That was the longing of the poor children whose minds were filled with may sweet dreams while their lives were bitter in reality. The classes went very quickly. Soon, it was time go back home. On the way back, the kids talked to each other about the plan of making the homemade lantern.

At noon, the quarter came alive again when the kids got back from school. They raced each other into the kitchen to grasp something to eat. After which, they followed their grandmothers to pick up the discarded coconut shells at the market. Helping their grandmas was one of the things they liked to do. The other was the opportunity to visit the lantern and the mooncake stores. Returning from the market, they joined with each other to find the condensed milk cans in the garbage for making the lantern. After dinner, kids came together on the pavement to drill the holes around the side of the can and make the handle by connecting the wooden stick to its side. When they lit the candle inside the can, it looked like the reflections of the mirrored ball in a dance hall, flickering through the holes. The children loved to march this lantern on the night of the mid-autumn festival.

On the festival day, the adults came home earlier than normal. They bought some mooncakes from the bakery vendor on the street at a cheap price. They came home early to set up an altar with incenses, mooncakes, rice, salt, candies, and bananas to worship the heaven and the earth, and especially the god of the moon along with the family’s ancestors. The altar had to sit for a long time until the incenses were burned out. Meanwhile, the kids marched their lanterns around the quarter and sang songs. They share their candles and relit it when one of them was blown off by the wind. One of the kids was fortunate enough to have the real lantern. That lantern was shared to everybody in the group, and it was handled with a special care. Sitting in the circle with the lanterns, watching the moon, and singing the mid-autumn songs was the most beautiful thing to do. Life seemed hard, but it had its own beauty for all classes to enjoy. When it got late, the children had to come back to the house to have a piece of mooncake and drink tea. As the day was ended, the kids carefully wrapped their cans and the leftover candles in plastic bags to save for next year, and they went to bed waiting for the next morning to come.

The mid-autumn festival is one of the traditional festival which is celebrated by all Vietnamese and Chinese people. Each quarter had its own way of celebrating. Regardless of class and lacking of material things, the people still keep the traditional practice. Especially for the kids in the quarter of the “old market,” they had part of their dreams completed. When they got up the next morning even with their empty stomachs, they felt happy because this festival brought them together in love and brotherhood. Then, they could look back ten or twenty years later to have a sweet memory of what their childhood was like.~

PLEASE RESPECT ONE'S COPYRIGHTED WORK BY CITING THE ORIGINAL SOURCE.

Que Ngoai

NOTE: For those who cannot view Vietnamese language from your web browser and those who cannot read Vietnamese, click on one of the provided links to appropriately download the desired language version of Que Ngoai in PDF format for your viewing convenience.

Available in PDF format
[English(.pdf)] [Vietnamese(.pdf)]

Chiều chiều ra đứng ngõ sau
Trông về quê Ngoại ruột đau chín chiều.

Sinh ra và lớn lên tại thành phố Sài Gòn, tôi chưa bao giờ từng được về thăm quê Ngoại Tân An ở Long An, một tỉnh nông nghiệp miền Nam Việt Nam thuộc vùng đồng bằng sông Cửu Long.

Nhưng, hình ảnh của những cánh đồng lúa phì nhiêu, vườn cây ăn trái xum xuê và con đường làng đất bụi đã in sâu vào trong tiềm thức. Mỗi khi hồi tưởng lại những hình ảnh trên thì nó đem lại cho tôi một cảm giác rất gần gũi và thân thương.

Có một lần, má tôi và tôi được mời về thăm quê mẹ của một người quen ở Mỹ Tho thuộc tỉnh Tiền Giang. Đi xe thồ, hái vú sữa và tắm mương là những kỷ niệm đẹp của một ngày dã ngọai. Về đến nhà, tôi luôn khao khát là một ngày nào đó tôi sẽ có dịp sống một cuộc sống êm đềm trong một không gian yên tịnh nơi đồng quê.

Trở lại với cuộc sống hiện tại giữa lòng thành phố Sài Gòn ồn ào và náo nhiệt lúc bấy giờ, tôi chỉ biết được quê Ngoại qua những câu chuyện hồi xửa hồi xưa mà ngoại tôi thường kể. Nào là chuyện ngoại đi gánh gạo bán lúc trời còn tờ mờ sáng, chuyện con ma vú dài lúc về đêm, vân vân và vân vân. Và giờ đây theo lời kể lại của má tôi, tôi được biết thêm là nhà của gia đình ngoại khi xưa ở gần cầu Vàm…

Vỏn vẹn bấy nhiêu vốn liếng ít ỏi của sự hiểu biết về quê Ngoại, tôi thật sự trân quý những gì mà mình tìm hiểu được. Và tôi ghi lại đây cho các cháu tôi nay được sinh ra và lớn lên tại Hợp Chủng Quốc Hoa Kỳ và mong muốn các cháu của tôi biết đến một nơi mà khi các cháu lớn lên các cháu có thể trở về thăm lại cội nguồn.


Writer’s Notes
After years of training to dream, think, speak and write all in English, getting back to write things in Vietnamese presents a bit of a challenge because it has been a while since I wrote in my own native language. “Que Ngoai” is the first piece of writing on Happinest Daily which is deemed appropriate to be written in Vietnamese.

Rather than doing a direct translation from English to Vietnamese, I kept the originality of the writing by bringing about my thoughts in Vietnamese instead of in English. As for the English version, I wrote it separately, yet still keeping most main ideas. As a result, it turns out to be a slight variation from the original that serves as a rough translation for the Vietnamese counterpart.

Peaceful Notre-Dame

Tượng Nữ Vương Hòa Bình
tại
Vương Cung Thánh Đường Chánh Tòa Đức Bà Sài Gòn

Peaceful Notre-Dame statue at Saigon's Notre-Dame Cathedral
(Photo by Mei)

Even though I’m not being able to recall the exact date, I remember that summer day in August well. It was damp and cloudy. My camera refused to take the picture due to low light and off focus problems. It was then that I prayed really hard to the Peaceful Notre-Dame asking her for allowing me to take the photo.

In the end, the camera shuttle finally went off and the above picture is the result of how it turned out. Surprisingly beautiful, isn’t it?

At first, I have thought of presenting the edited black and white version of the Peaceful Notre-Dame statue picture for simplicity with a sense of nostalgia. But, I have decided to present the original instead. Although the sky was not as clear blue, the rawness of dark gray clouds covered blue sky seemed to be more fitting.

As violence and the injustices occur daily around the world, the hope for peace seems to be fading away. One would be living in despair. Yet, behind those dark gray clouds of the moment is the blue-colored sky of peaceful hope. Thus, let’s pray for the blessing of peace for the upcoming year and many years to come!

I Believe

Whenever Brodard bakery starts to put up their seasonal display of decorative Yule log-shaped cakes, it is Christmas time!

Funny, but that is how I would recall the start of the Christmas holiday season from my childhood memories.

Every year, my dad would take me to a shoe store located on (uprising) Dong Khoi Street, better known as (freedom) Tu Do Street, to pick out a new pair of leather sandal in replacing for the old one of mine that was already worn out from the previous year. With the soles were all eaten up, the old pair looked like a pair of razor blades that are sharp enough to cut through just anything. Thus, I was very happy to try on my new sandal, but not to wear them right away…

After our visit to the shoe store, my dad and I used to take a stroll through the streets of Saigon for "sightseeing" of Christmas decorations on display at local shops, department stores, high rise hotels, fancy restaurants and bars. Many of them had Christmas trees decking the main hall completed with colorful ornaments and blinking lights. As for the rest, the more popular, alternative choice for decorations was star-shaped lanterns. At the Saigon’s Notre-Dame Cathedral, it was there where one can find the biggest and brightest star among them all.

As always, on our way to the cathedral, I often asked my dad to stop over at a branch of Brodard bakery located across from the City Theatre so I could take a look in admiring bánh, Vietnamese for cake, Bûche through the glass store display windows. Since Christmas is more often be referred as Noël in Viet Nam, the Yule log Christmas cake is better known as Bûche de Noël.

On surrounding perimeter of the Notre-Dame Cathedral and the near by Central Post Office, lining up one after another were street shop after street shop busy selling Christmas cards, ornaments and, of course, star-shaped lanterns. Adding to the festive scene of the holiday season were groups of young and old, Christians and non-Christians gathered at the cathedral’s front courtyard enjoying casual conversation with one another.

At the foot of the Peaceful Notre-Dame statue, children were running around the flower garden. Holding in their hands was the big round red-colored balloon tied to a long stick that the balloon stands had it for sell just for the occasion. Others were trying on those pointy red paper hats their parents bought for them. And, pictures were taken by street-side photographers as memories got frozen in frames.

Having been taken inside the cathedral to observe the nativity scene, my dad walked me home leaving behind the busy streets to the Saigon's nightlife as traffics getting heavier.

* * *

Nowadays, things must have changed as I have learned that we now have Santa Clause riding motorbike to deliver Christmas gifts to children at home for a small fee.

With less than 10 percents of Viet Nam's total population is Catholic, it is much less for a Vietnamese family to celebrate traditional Christmas and it is much less for Vietnamese parents to be Santa Clause in bringing out that twinkle in the eyes of their children.

As Christmas services become commercialized, the magical moment has lost its special meaning. Once being a child, I really appreciated what my parents did for me. On this Christmas, I wish that those children would have the same magical experience as I once had.

Every year, I felt in awe of what happened before my eyes on Christmas morning. Santa did not only leave gifts, he even decorated the surrounding!

Having carefully placed at the foot of the bed my new pair of leather sandal on the night before Christmas, I was thankful for the unexpected gifts that Santa had left behind on Christmas Day. Whether it was a wooden truck hauling ton of candies or a lady bug imprinted clear plastic purse filled with chocolates, the lovingly thought of someone who cares was much more important than the material good themselves.

Although all presents did eventually stop after the year I suddenly woke up one night and saw my parents franticly decorated the place, the present of magical experience that they gave was long lasting than that.

Even now, I still believe in Santa Clause!

Flowers of My Life

Now and then
Think of you and me
Forever friends forever will be
Time is changin'
But nothing's to be blamed
Cos our heart forever sing

- (Half Rap) Chorus lyrics from the song Friendship found
in Leo Ku's compilation album titled Having You On This Day

Looking back on life, friends did come and go. Since there were no formal "hellos", there were no definite "goodbyes." Yet, there were unspoken promises to keep in touch. But, did anyone really?

When meeting new friends, I often reflect about old ones, wondering how they are and what they are up to. How are you, old friends? Do you still remember me?

There are two shoeboxes filled with hand written letters from friends that I have kept over the years. One even goes as far back as elementary school days. Whenever I place in a new letter, I start to read a few of the old ones.

The presence of friends is like a breath of spring bringing blooms of happiness, an early summer sun brightening the day, an autumn night's wind blowing away all woes and lastingly festive winter time bringing about joy. Their presence is for a purpose. They are there for me. And, I’m there with them.

As a novice gardener, I did learn that annuals need to be re-planting every year while perennials come back years after years. Yet, they both require fertilizing, watering and especially, caring.

Here, in the Northeast, the weather is changing through out the year. Pleasantly springtime soon leads to a glaringly hot summer. Just as colorful autumn leaves fall off the trees, the harshly cold winter begins. Plants need to be protected to cope with whatever nature brings.

As early as autumn, flowering buds of some trees already are measurable in size. It is always a thrill to see spring bulbs coming up through the ground dusting with snow falling late in winter. Noticing them, one would picture a vibrant palette of flowers and greens that is not necessarily seen only in spring and summer.

My friends are flowers of my life. They are in my heart and I do think in caring for them. I thank them for being there, even only for a brief moment.

How do we keep in touch? Truthfully, it might not be possible in the today world. But, it’s still worth trying to do whatever we can. Or else, let’s take a little time in our day to think of each other.


*Photo courtesy of Microsoft Office Online
(Re-edited by Mei using Picasa2 and Microsoft Office Picture Manager)