(NLDO) - Buying salt at the beginning of the year is a way to remind family members to always value love, loyalty, and solidarity to build a happy family.
When peach and apricot blossoms were in full bloom, I was dressed up in new clothes for a spring outing and suddenly heard a clear voice calling out: "Who wants to buy salt?"
Suddenly remembering the good customs of the time when living in the poor countryside of the lowland plains. Since ancient times, no one knows when it started, only knowing that our grandparents and parents' generation always passed on to each other the proverb: "Buy salt at the beginning of the year".
Many salt sellers are creative and put salt in lucky money envelopes and red bags to symbolize luck.
The custom of "Buying salt at the beginning of the year"
According to farmers, the rich taste of salt brings luck to the homeowner. Therefore, for generations, there has been a custom of buying salt at the beginning of the year to express the wish for a peaceful and happy year.
I thought it was a custom of the North, but celebrating Tet in the South, I realized that good customs always exist with the flow of time and will exist anywhere. Where there is supply, there will be demand, on the first day of the New Year, salt sellers with radiant faces like messengers of spring are spreading good values, concepts and customs.
Everyone understands the value of pure white salt, salt is an essential mineral that is indispensable in the biochemical process of humans through seasoning daily food. Salt makes meals richer and more flavorful. In the human mind for generations, salt has also been a symbol of emotional connection in the family.
I remember when I was still living with my parents in my hometown, every time I wondered why my mother had to buy salt at the beginning of the year? My mother, an honest and simple farmer, answered based on experience: perhaps because in the past we were poor, so buying salt was a way for grandparents and parents to remind their children and grandchildren to be thrifty and frugal.
But my father smiled and said: salt crystallizes between the sun, wind, seawater, and through the hard labor of salt workers to have pure, white salt grains. Therefore, salt is also a symbol of good feelings, the warmth in relationships, the love between husband and wife, and children. Buying salt at the beginning of the year is a way to remind family members to always value love, respect, and solidarity to build a happy family.
Holding a bag of salt in hand, the pure white salt grains, in my heart I carry many wishes for the beginning.
In the past, women selling salt carried a basket full of salt inside. When someone bought it, they would pour it out and not leave it aside, hoping that the owner would have a prosperous business. But as time went on, people's lives became more modern, and salt sellers no longer had to carry salt to small, winding alleys. They just needed to stand in places with many visitors and spring travelers at the beginning of the year. Many salt sellers were also creative, putting salt in lucky money envelopes and red bags to symbolize luck.
Sharing with me, the salt seller smiled in the morning sun: "Selling salt is very easy, the seller does not haggle and the buyer does not bargain or bargain for fear of losing luck. Anyone with the mentality of getting lucky, adding spring fortune is excited and cheerful. So for me, selling salt at the beginning of the year is very easy and brings a lot of joy."
Holding the bag of salt in my hand, the pure white salt grains, my heart carries many wishes for a new beginning. For me, the salt jar conveys the wish for a prosperous life, attracting wealth, cleaning the living space and preventing negative energy.
The custom of "Buying salt at the beginning of the year" contains a humanistic value that our ancestors wanted to convey in it a refined and culturally rich way of behaving, always promoting purity, elegance, and affection in family and social relationships, and even more so, love for the homeland and country.
So for me, buying salt at the beginning of the year not only means praying for good luck, but I also want to continue to preserve the good customs that our ancestors left for us today and tomorrow...
Source: https://nld.com.vn/dau-nam-mua-muoi-196250129100400533.htm
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