When speaking of Tet, many people will immediately think of the taste of traditional dishes such as Chung and tet cake or flowers like peach and apricot blossoms. However, an indispensable part of Tet is also it's fragrance: the smell of incense, of candied fruits, of the blossoms. For many Vietnamese, the smell of Tet is the scent from mature coriander, which is used for bathing as way of welcoming a new year.
For many, even if they had peach blossoms, kumquat trees, dahlia, purple violet, chung cake, and candied fruits, Tet is incomplete without the good old coriander fragrance. For Vietnamese who live overseas, it is the scent of memories, the scent of their homeland, that makes us love and treasure more the national Tet holiday.
