Truong Sa islanders celebrate Tet

Chung cakes in the making

Islanders are sprucing up their houses, making Banh Chung (square cake) and displaying trays of fruit on their ancestral altars. Though peach and kumquat trees are sent from the mainland, they have usually withered by the time they arrive due to a long trip and harsh weather.

Necessity is the mother of invention. To enjoy an authentic Tet atmosphere, the soldiers simulate new peach and kumquat trees using branches of phong ba trees – trees that can withstand strong winds and powerful storms – and silk flowers.

Pigs are slaughtered to make holiday dishes such as chung cake. The wrapping of chung cake is often done in the evening of the 29^th day of the 12^th lunar month or the next morning so that the cake can be taken out of the boiler just before midnight – a sacred moment for Vietnamese people.

The cake is made of sticky rice, green bean, pork and pepper, but has a distinctive taste because it is wrapped in discoloured and withered dong leaves, transported from the mainland, or sometimes banana or coconut leaves.

Lieutenant Tran Van Sau on Big Truong Sa Island says it is difficult to make a beautifully square and green cake. To do this, he says, banana leaves are cleaned and dried in the sun to make them softer and easier to wrap.

Without support from women, the soldiers still manage to prepare a New Year’s Eve party with many traditional dishes, including pork pie, papaw salad, bamboo shoot soup, boiled chicken, spring rolls, chung cake and sticky rice. After offering incense to the ancestors, the soldiers sit around and enjoy the dishes.

“Though we enjoy the Tet atmosphere as our compatriots do on the mainland, we do not forget our task of guarding the nation’s territorial waters,” says Chu Dinh Them, a soldier on Da Lat Island.

Normally, just an hour before midnight, the soldiers give an art performance in praise of the country, the Party, President Ho Chi Minh and soldiers garrisoned on islands.

After listening to televised Tet Greetings from the State President, the heads of the army units deliver their own Tet messages, and soldiers take part in cultural and sports activities such as a singing contest or football and volleyball games the following day.

Defending territorial waters – a primary task

During the Tet holiday, officers and soldiers on Truong Sa archipelago strictly observe regulations on patrolling. Lieutenant Vo Van Huy from Big Truong Sa Island says, “We feel at ease only when the entire nation enjoys the holiday peacefully.”

Sergeant Nguyen Hoang Dong from Hai Hau district, Nam Dinh province, says, for a school graduate like him, it was his great honour to serve the island and defend national territorial waters.

“Living far from my relatives, I sometimes feel homesick, especially when I watch on television people on the mainland shopping and decorating their houses for Tet,” Dong says. “But I am aware of my duty and I try my best to fulfil it.”

Like other islanders on Truong Sa, a couple named Vo Van Truong and Nguyen Thi Hanh are busy decorating their house for a nine-day-long holiday. Truong says after the New Year’s Eve party, he, his wife and their children will sit in front of the television, enjoying the Tet atmosphere across the country, hearing the State President deliver its Tet message and watching the firework display.

Truong says he will give lucky money to his wife and children, and they will all then phone their relatives on the mainland and extend best wishes to them.

Meanwhile, volunteer teacher Bui Thi Nhung says she will not feel lonely during this Tet as she will have neighbours and pupils to relieve her homesickness.

“At first, my husband did not allow me to go to Truong Sa, but I finally persuaded him,” Nhung recalls. “It’s hard to teach on the island because there are no reference materials and I have to study a lot myself. Besides, I have to teach pupils at different levels, from pre-school to primary school. But my love of the pupils helps me overcome these difficulties.”

These days, visitors can feel the Tet atmosphere everywhere. Islanders understand that they are not alone, because Party and State leaders and tens of millions of Vietnamese people show their heart-felt appreciation and strong support for them.