Harvest day…
happy harvest day in the village
The rice fields sing joyfully
Rice does not worry about the enemy coming
When the golden season of the countryside
…….
Rice, golden rice, endless rice fields
Sickle gloves each fragrant rice branch falls..
…….
The melody of his music… a great poet, each note of his music through the saxophone of the trumpeter… in the music list played from the taxi driver’s speaker… still lingering and passionate… as if dispelling all anxiety, bringing back in me so many memories, memories of the countryside, of the fields, each blade of grass, each tree root seemed to be leading me back to the atmosphere of the harvest season.
Yes harvest season
Who has gone through the days of childhood walking on the grass, who has held a sickle to cut rice, who has pulled up seedlings, weeded, on the beloved fields?
No matter where you live today, there are 8 billion living beings on earth.
Feel the sweat falling on the fields, on the furrows, on the grass, on the tree roots.
My village fields are very large, divided into two halves that are always green all year round: the winter-spring crop from January to May, the summer-autumn crop from May to October…
The same rice variety passed down through generations…sown and planted in the village fields.
During the rice crop season, the half of the land near the village only grows two varieties of sticky rice: castor oil sticky rice and yellow flower sticky rice. I don’t know why, but that same variety of rice was taken somewhere else, or the rice grains on the other side of the fields are not fragrant or sticky.
My grandmother said that the rice fields near the village are like a gift from heaven, giving farmers fragrant, soft, rich rice grains… the sticky rice here, whatever is harvested, is bought by traders to make sticky rice to make soy sauce, sticky rice for offerings to ancestors or to wrap banh chung for Tet.
This year’s harvest is so much fun… the rice is heavy in the fields… bustling from morning to noon, people cutting and carrying, bustling like a festival
My family also has fields, but because my grandmother is busy with work…my mother goes to teach, so all of her fields are worked by my uncles’ families.
Every early morning the sound of buffalo carts pulling rice home
Tonight .
After dinner, my grandmother said, tomorrow Uncle Anh’s family will harvest sticky rice. Do you want to go see or catch some? Come. The day to offer new rice is coming soon. That day, she made a tray of food to offer, which coincided with Tam’s birthday.
Grandma, what is birthday?
his father
The day someone is born, the child has been offered a full month anniversary to the ancestors… but the mind, it has not been witnessed by the ancestors yet…
Nine o’clock in the morning… the mist cleared, the sun rose, the fields were like a festival. I slowly cycled out to the fields.
My uncle’s field is near my aunt’s house… running across her gate…
Her little girl was wandering alone.
A.. anh tu.. anh tu where are you going? Come play at my house.
The lady was sitting in the corner of the yard. Kneading, mixing, kneading the yeast powder into a tray of rice and boiled cassava to ferment and make wine.
She saw me..smiled.
I want porridge, aunt.
Where are you going, boy?
I went out to see my grandfather harvest sticky rice. My grandmother said there are many spoons of sticky rice in the field.
Hiiihi
I thought you said to go harvest rice.. looking like that.. just harvesting..hiiii
What do you reap?
Who knows..boys in puberty only…harvest girls.hiii
She joked…she glanced at me, her eyes sharp…the way she squatted, tiptoeing around the rice tray…the shorts reaching to her thighs, light gray, made of thin floral fabric with tiny petals like strawberry flowers, hugging her thighs…some convex, some concave…it seemed like she didn’t notice.
Or do you want it exposed…that place…up, round, plump…straight, from top to bottom like two grapefruit scents…
I swallowed hard, it’s been a long time, but today I see it again..
She looked up, smiling, her eyes glancing sideways sharply.
what
Why don’t you go to the field? Why do you look at that scholarly young man? The sticky rice leaves will scratch your arms and legs.
Her little girl ran back.
Mom, is Tu going to the field to catch grasshoppers? Let me go out with him, Mom.
Miss Hong said, ask Anh Tu…put on your mother’s hat.
Aunt..This October 12th, we will offer new rice, my grandmother will make rice to worship the mute aunt..that day is also her birthday..
Teacher…how is birthday?
Oh…oh really?
Yeah I don’t know what a birthday is.
Oh, to worship the dead, people cook sweet soup with white sugar, and sticky rice balls. For boys, nine dead are arranged into nine bowls, for girls, seven dead are arranged into seven bowls… and pray to the ancestors, to let them be children and grandchildren in the house…
As for birthdays…in the city they have cakes, here I have cakes…light 18 candles, if anyone is 18 years old…
Who is love then give flowers, give gifts..hiii
Is that so, how do you get candles and flowers, teacher?
Oh my…you’re speechless…you’re trying to give flowers to a mute girl?
This girl… because I see her as a poor mute… with no one, no one to love… and suddenly pregnant, that’s why I said that.
Hiii..you’re kidding..that girl’s fate is miserable..you understand..let me go by your house tomorrow to play, meet your grandmother and talk..that day I’ll contribute..it’s her birthday
Oh, hey… keep it a secret… don’t let Tam know… bouquet of flowers, cake, candles… birthday gifts tomorrow I will deliver wine to the temple market I ordered. The next market day is near the new rice offering day I will go down to get it… see what beautiful flowers our village has… pick them to make a wreath for her…
How did it end?
Easy, you take a dry banana leaf, roll it into a circle… the size of your head, try to put it on your head. Then take flowers, arrange them in a circle, braid them and when the ceremony comes, let her put it on her head like a pot rack.
Hiiiii..
Are trumpet vine flowers okay?
oh…so beautiful…this season is right, there are trumpet vine flowers, trumpet vine flowers, hibiscus flowers…the wreath has such spiritual meaning
Oh, but hey…I can help you on one condition.
what conditions
uh…what is it…pick you up for me…and the other thing…i haven’t thought of it yet..
must be the secret again…hiiii
oh..i don’t know, you saw all the secrets..what’s the secret anymore?
no ma’am…i just saw a little bit…saw from afar…pretend i didn’t see it
so smart huh..you scared the hell out of me…i haven’t punished you yet
you’re lying…at that time i only saw you screaming…what else…hiiii…clear laughter, close…like understanding the secret between two people…who knows…i don’t understand yet…one day
you are so scared…one day…
oh…she also said one day..
what day is it
I haven’t thought of it yet..but you men are all the same…hiiii
well…i don’t know…
you just wait and see…so it won’t work
…..
The gentle sunlight passed through the clouds, the October sky was silvery..I took my little girl to the field..
My uncle’s family has 3 uncles, 2 boys and 2 girls. My aunt is the youngest, my uncle’s daughter is not married yet. She is about 23 years old. My uncle’s family is the most beautiful.
Tu greeted her aunt..she raised her head, pulled down her veil, her back was covered in sweat..
Do you have a spoon, aunt?
Full of…lots of sticky rice…
Grasshoppers, crickets, grasshoppers, spoons…all of them flying around, fat and fast…my little girl, Miss Hong, and I ran and jumped around, and in no time we had nearly ten long strings of spoons…a harvest day, a happy day, a festival day…
Aunt Hau said…break time, Tu…it’s been a long time…call the girl out…pulling the rice leaves and scratching her cheeks
She pulled her hat down and fanned herself hurriedly.
Auntie…my grandmother said that on the day of the new rice offering…there will also be a ceremony for the mute lady…that day is also her birthday.
Really..I parked my car and talked to Ms. Hong..she said she also came that day..
My aunt and I made her a birthday wreath.
Okay, you pick flowers… go to grandpa’s garden to ask for them… there are many beautiful flowers… auntie come over… let me blow out the candles
………..
That whole week I was restless, as if waiting for her birthday. That feeling still lingers until now. I don’t know what it is, but I feel restless every time I lie down at night.
Every cold wind, every moment the raft drifts, every day that passes…like it reappears…in the quiet night
This afternoon the wind is chilly… the day my village offers new rice according to village custom
I don’t know what my grandmother said…around 3pm that day my house was very crowded…chicken to make sticky rice, pounded rice cakes to make offerings, both uncles also ran back and forth preparing the food in the house…
My aunt and I whispered..
Auntie, is the wreath you made beautiful?
Hiiii..secret..
The trumpet vine flowers are very beautiful to pick…the color of the trumpet vine flowers this season is very beautiful…
The sound of little pink footsteps running around
My grandmother put nine bowls of sweet soup and floating rice balls on the table in the middle of the house… up there, on the altar, a boiled chicken with incense smoke rising.
family meal happy in simple joy…
My grandmother took the mute girl out to pray…mumbling prayers…
A moment later, she held the mute girl’s hand and said…the elders have accepted you as their grandchild.
It was getting dark… the chickens were clucking in their coops. Aunt Hau winked and helped me carry the table to the house across the street.
Uncle asked…what are you doing carrying the table?
leave it alone.. today is also Tam’s birthday, Ms. Hong bought a cake.. her sisters are celebrating her birthday
Miss Hong led the mute girl into the room, changed into a new shirt as a birthday gift for her…she said…Tam close your eyes..
The queen mother wore a wreath of blood-red trumpet flowers, mixed with roses and bright red morning glory flowers…on her head.
18 candles lit up the room…the house was like magic…the mute girl sat down…18 years old…today she saw humanity and new things
I lined up with the aunt and the red lady… the little girl of the red lady hugged the mute lady’s neck…
Whispering little girl…whispering, Aunt Tam open your eyes…
.no powder, put on a gentle face…just a natural beauty, when she opened her eyes, her face turned red like wine
Happy birthday ..
The little girl’s voice whispered… happy birthday, Tam… blow out the candles…
The mute girl suddenly burst into sobs, the candlelight flickered, the red candle flame glowed… illuminating the tray of cakes, illuminating the red color of the trumpet tree flowers she was wearing on her head…
She blew out the candle…like a notebook turning the page…tomorrow…the village land, like arms embracing her…motherland