Every year busy or not at the beginning of the 8th lunar month I have to ridefour or five times through the quarters of Luong Nhu Hoc and Phu Dinh – Dist. 5. I stopped there gazing at the lanterns of various types and styles, Ðèn ông sao ( star lantern), ðèn býõm býớm ( butterfly ), ðèn kéo quân ( Parade ), to ðèn xếp ( Chinese lantern ) or battery lanterns brought a whole childhood back to me. The scenes of children shown by parents to the lanterns for a happy look and choice gave me a complete pleasure of coming back to the time when we were nine or ten.

My family was then a month-wage civil servant. My father earned just from hand to mouth so an expense for buying moon cakes was unaffordable. He saved to buy them by handing in a small amount monthly and two weeks before Tet Trung Thu ( mid-autumn festival ) he could come and take eight cakes wrapped in papers seen through with the oil absorbed from inside the cakes. And, every evening, after dinner, my father cut one into 4 pieces. One for my Dad, one for my Mom and I always had two pieces as the only son. Ðậu xanh trứng ( Cake with green bean and eeg ) is most tasty. I melted bit after bit in my mouth running about in the old small house dreaming of another half the next day.

One week before our kids in the hamlet talked about making lanterns. We came to Ton Tho Tuong st collecting extra bamboo tube; then cut into splints and shaped the frame. We bought cellophane and glued it to the bamboo frame. On the evening of the 14th of the 8th lunar month my mother prepared chè kho ( soft green lentil cake ) a special dish for me and my friends in the same hamlet. We played in the outer yard, hanging all the self-made lanterns from planes, stars, butterflies… on the wall, singing and eating che kho and then, with a lantern in hand, we strolled out to the street in the practice of ruoc den Trung Thu ( lantern parade on mid-autumn festival ) until late. Back home I still found half of the moon cake in the dish cover on the table. That late night I felt happier than any other day, never expecting that moment of the day would never die in the next fifty years.

Ups and downs of life came to me but the images and the contentment on Tet Trung Thu remain intact. Every time I see a lantern or a moon cake shop or hear the melodies of the song Ruoc den Trung Thu ( mid-autumn lantern parade ) I fret with obsessive memories of the past. Love from my poor parents seen through the cakes saved month to month and preparation of che kho sometime generously allows tears from the corners of my eyes. My parents both passed away; my childhood friends are now scattered. The lights and the warmth of those live in me and return every year when the calendar counts the 8th lunar month. In the childhood of my son, on this occasion, while tasting the sweetness of moon cakes I did not forget to retell him this story. He’s grown up from such a past & background and memories on his father as well as his grand parents. Soft education is thus successful and successive from generation to generation.