Tran Tuyet Tran – 9/2
Stepping out of the house with my uniform and my school bag on my shoulder. Breathing in the fresh morning air after the thin mist. Today is no longer cold, the swallows have returned from winter, so spring has come! On the tree branches, the young buds, the green buds are growing, the first flower buds are also blooming, gently, shyly showing off their charm in the weather filled with spring colors. The road to school today is much more crowded, the trucks carrying Tet goods with a more urgent atmosphere are gathering at the markets. The faces of the passersby also seem brighter. And especially the flower and ornamental plant markets are displayed everywhere. My heart is filled with joy with many emotions. Today, my school is also preparing for the Spring Festival - a traditional festival of the school that has been held annually for more than fifteen years.
The Spring Festival is an activity for students to have fun and experience. Moreover, we had just gone through a stressful exam period and this was the time for me and my friends to temporarily say goodbye to books to have fun and relax at the Spring Festival. Before the festival took place, students and teachers in the school were busy preparing for the festival. Around 2 pm, everyone started working, the atmosphere in the yard was extremely bustling and bustling. First was setting up tents for the class booths. Each class was creative, using bamboo, reeds, or plastic pipes, etc. to set up tents and decorate their booths. After setting up the frame for the gate, everyone moved on to decorating. Above the signboard, the class used round trays, pasted or painted letters and hung them up. There was also a class that used cardboard to cut or wrap string lights into letters, etc. Each class had a different style, which looked really beautiful. I still like the decoration of my class the most, everyone who passes by praises it and admires it for a long time. Our class uses used plastic bottles, assembles them, sprays them with paint, and wraps colorful lights around them, creating the word "Korean Rice Rolls – Grade 6/2”. The “artists” of my class filled the space on both sides of the gate with pictures of Korea and delicious Kimpap. A few friends and I added some pretty little apricot and peach blossoms to make the booth more eye-catching. When it was finished, I was proud because the gate of my class booth was so beautiful, it was so sparkling that people couldn’t take their eyes off it. By 5 o’clock, all the classes had finished their work. This was the most favorable time for the organizing committee to go and evaluate the booths and visit to see what was special about the decorations of this year’s festival. I have attended the Spring Festival many times but I have never seen repetition in ideas. Every corner was decorated so eye-catchingly and creatively. No one was the same but everything was sparkling and fresh.
The next morning, I woke up very early after a sleepless night because of anticipation and excitement. I walked on the way to school in a brand new Ao Dai. This was the Tet outfit that my mother had deliberately bought early for me to wear on this occasion. The sky today was clear and high, with warm rays of sunshine everywhere. Spring had truly come! I could see the colors of spring in every corner of the street, every road, every narrow alley. Everyone on the street had a cheerful expression. Their smiles were as bright as the flowers blooming around me. I skipped and jumped on the spring road, every step I took was to the tune of the song " Spring Melody”.
Entering the school, the atmosphere of the spring festival was filled. I saw the silhouette of the yellow apricot tree shining brightly under the gentle sunlight. Flowers bloomed in clusters, each flower spread out five petals, smooth as silk. A few meters away is a peach tree, small peach blossoms, petals gracefully stacked on top of each other. The pistil is as golden as a golden thread. People were bustling about the festival. I walked inside, it was only seven o'clock in the morning but the atmosphere was already very exciting.On the ceiling, there are many funny and lovely stylized lanterns in the shape of the twelve zodiac animals, meticulously created by the teachers.
Each class has its own small booth to serve food and drinks of their choice, mostly traditional dishes. The food court is very special, full of attractive and eye-catching dishes. My class serves rice rolls - a dish that is loved by many people, especially us students. The teacher and students wear traditional Korean costumes - Hanbok. Everyone is busy, gathering together in the class booth, to create delicious Kimpap pieces. The hands of the teachers and students are quick and agile. Bright smiles bloom on their lips, the greetings are warm like professional and easy-going sales people. Next to my class, the next class serves Gio cake - a traditional dish of the Tay people, offered to the earth, sky, and ancestors on holidays. The students in the next class dress up as Tay girls and boys in a very simple and elegant way. Other stalls also have familiar cakes such as banh beo, banh cuon, banh chung, banh tet, banh goi, banh nam, etc. There are also hot dishes: pho, bun cha, bun rieu, banh canh, mi quang, etc. In addition, you can also enjoy many other snacks such as: nem cha, grilled meat, papaya salad, spring rolls, etc. or even some fresh, cooling desserts including fruits, ice cream, sweet soup, juices. Coming to the cuisine of Duc Tri Spring Festival, we seem to be immersed in a "culinary street" with countless attractive and diverse stalls. Besides eating and drinking activities, there are fun and entertaining activities with extremely fun and interesting folk games. You will be able to dance on bamboo poles, play o an quan, banh dua, catch fish in the lake, throw banh dia, and most especially, play bai choi. If you love art, you can also sit in a space full of light and paint statues, make sand paintings, draw pictures or make clay figurines under the guidance of the "artists" named after the teachers. There are countless interesting activities that will attract and pull you in to join in the fun. The higher the sun rises, the more bustling the festival atmosphere becomes. People flock to the festival like sardines. I see the joy of the students who get to eat and play freely. I see the joy on the faces of the teachers when the Spring Festival is taking place successfully. I see the praise in the smiles and eyes of the parents when they see our teachers and students are talented in the role of artisans, artists and amateur chefs. The voices, laughter mixed with the music create a spring symphony imbued with Duc Tri's character. If the Spring Festival is not over, there must be a spring market, right? The spring market here sells many necessary items for Tet, especially recycled toys made by the skillful hands of the female administrators. In the market, colorful items are sold in a variety of ways. There are Tet parallel sentences, lucky money envelopes, kumquat tree decorations, peach blossoms, apricot blossoms, porcelain sets of the twelve zodiac animals, and even paintings by students, etc.
The number of participants in the Spring Festival is increasing. In the school yard, the colors and warm human affection have blended together. The stalls, the market, and the game area also stand out in the spring sunshine. On the other side of the stage are the special performances prepared by students from different classes, and the recycled fashion show of the kindergarten children. The innocent and funny looks of the children are like beautiful flowers that have just bloomed. Some are shy and timid. Some show their bravery like real supermodels. The older students in primary and secondary schools perform regional fashion shows. There are Vietnamese ao dai through the ages, colorful ao ba ba, or ao tu than, khan dong, non quai thao with the bold style of Bac Ninh quan ho...
The damp weather of winter days has passed, the vitality of spring has come to the beloved Duc Tri school. The atmosphere became more bustling and bustling when the school played cheerful spring music. Everyone happily sang together, danced enthusiastically, with bright smiles on their lips. Buyers, sellers, and entertainers gave each other joy and the warmth of spring. People's hearts were filled with warm love. It was like that until late afternoon, when the sun went down, that everyone "refused" to go home!
The Duc Tri Spring Festival is really interesting, isn't it? We get to experience interesting games, enjoy delicious food, watch performances, and admire the beautiful spring scenery. Every time like that, everyone is excited because they get to show off their Tet ao dai together in the midst of cheerful laughter. Each game, each booth in the Spring Festival brings us students an understanding of traditional values and the beauty of national culture. To organize activities well, everyone must unite, join hands, and unite. Thanks to that, the Spring Festival helps us students understand more about the cultural traditions of the Vietnamese people, especially cuisine and costumes. Through that, you will know how to appreciate, preserve, and conserve the cultural identity of the nation forever.
This year is my last year at school. I hope I will have beautiful memories in the Spring Festival of my senior year. And even in the years to come, when I grow up, the memories of my childhood in the cradle named Duc Tri will always exist in my mind in the most beautiful and perfect way!