Tradition of making Chung cake for Tet in Hanoi

Chủ Nhật, 03/02/2019, 16:12

The Lunar New Year (Tet) Festival is coming and Hanoians are eager to prepare and wrap Banh chung (square glutinous rice cake) - a traditional cake of Vietnamese people during this occasion.

Making Chung cake for the Lunar New Year is an aged-old tradition of Vietnamese people. Chung cakes are meaningful gifts and an indispensible offering on the ancestral altars during Vietnam’s biggest festival of the year.

In recent years, the market has become more crowded because many Hanoians are making Banh Chung by themselves.

The cakes are boiled in the building’s yard. All people gather around the pot and talk together.

Chung cake consists of sticky rice, pork and green bean, with all ingredients wrapped inside a leaf called Dong, which is similar to banana leaves. The round shape symbolizes the earth, while the ingredients represent plants, animals, and the wet rice civilization.

Legend tells us that when the 6th Hung King organized an ancestral worship 4,000 years ago, he assigned his princes to prepare offerings. He said he would cede the throne to whoever brought the best offering. The princes travelled through forests and dived in to the ocean to find precious products. Lang Lieu, the 18th prince, was the poorest son...

He could not get precious and rare items for the ceremony. With available agricultural products such as glutinous rice, green beans, and pork, he made a Chung square cake, which symbolizes the earth, and Giay round glutinous rice cake, which symbolizes the sky.

Lang Lieu’s offering met Hung King’s desire, so he succeeded to the throne. Chung cake have since become a must-have item in ancestral worship, which illustrates the spirit of “remembering the source of the water we drink.”

When the Lunar New Year comes, children joyfully watch adults making Chung cake. It’s a time of family reunion to prepare Tet together. When the children grow up, they make Chung cake with their children and repeat the custom.

Nowadays, in some big cities, the business life of modern society prevents people from making the cake at home. However, the customs of worshiping ancestors with Chung cake never changes. It is the evidence of the Vietnamese loyalty and deep gratitude to ancestors.

By Thien Minh