City - Sugar Land State - TEXAS Country - United States
About
This photo has been taken of the young volunteers gathered at the Viet Nam Buddhist Pagoda in Sugarland, Texas to cook the banh chung [the process requires 12 consecutive hours], to help the monks raising relief fund for tsunami victims in SE Asia. These banh chung are to be sold for preparation of TET, the sacred time when everyone becomes more generous.
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The Vietnamese, wherever they may be, are all thrilled and excited with the advent of TET (Lunar Calendar New Year), and they feel an immense nostalgia, wishing to come back to their homeland for a family reunion and a taste of the particular flavors of the Vietnamese festivities. Those who have settled down abroad all turn their thoughts to their home country and try to celebrate the festivities in the same traditional way as their family members and relatives to relieve their nostalgia, never forgetting the fine custom handed down from generation to generation.
As the legend goes, the banh chung came into being under King Hung, the national founder, some 4,000 years ago. Prince Lang Lieu, one of the sons of King Hung, made round and square cakes: the round bánh dày symbolizing the sky, and the square banh chung symbolic of the earth (under the ancient Viet's perception) and offered them to his Father on the occasion of Spring, and ever since the banh chung has been a "must" during the TET holidays. The banh chung is very nutritious, has an original tasty flavor and may be kept for a long time. All of its ingredients and materials, from the green wrapping leaves to sticky rice and pork, green peas and pepper inside, are all medicines (according to Oriental Medicine) that act to keep harmony between the positive and the negative, thus helping the blood circulate well and preventing diseases. Certainly, no other cakes could be of such cultural significance and produce such medical effects as the green banh chung of Vietnam.
The only way I could offer you the link to similar photo that contains additional details [in the embeded links in Photographer's noe] is to post that to the end of my "ABOUT". Please refer to that for many info you may be interested in.
I regret that USEFILM does not support html links, so I failed to give you quick access to more details about mentioned cakes and Vietnamese New Year Day.
I am going to try if I can give the link to other posting...
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