July is considered the month of gratitude, the month of implementing the program "drinking water, remembering the source" with many meaningful activities to show gratitude to war invalids, martyrs, people with meritorious services, families of people with meritorious services... During this time, each person's soul seems to calm down, contemplate more about the past, be grateful to the generations of fathers and brothers who sacrificed their blood and bones for the independence and freedom of the country and cherish a peaceful life more.
One morning in mid-July, I visited Truong Bon Historical Site, lit incense sticks to commemorate the 13 young volunteers who fell in their youth. Under the old pine hill, the wind blew softly, in the silent incense smoke, I suddenly felt my heart filled with emotion as if in the wind, in the purple color of the sim flowers, the story of "the past echoes back" was still whispered. Every day, this place welcomes many groups of visitors to offer incense in memory and visit. Old comrades still regularly visit their comrades, hugging the tombstones and choking up with sobs; There are former youth volunteers, despite their poor eyesight and slow legs, who still rely on their children and grandchildren to take them on motorbikes, traveling long distances here to whisper to their comrades who “remain” on the ground about the joys and sorrows in life… Local people, when the purple sim fruit on the hill is ripe, the grapefruit in the garden is tanned by the sun, or the fragrant ripe custard apple in front of their house… also respectfully bring it to offer to the brothers and sisters who fell for independence and peace today as a word of gratitude.
In July, on all roads of the beloved Fatherland, martyrs’ cemeteries in the localities are bustling with the footsteps of students wearing bright scarves to weed and burn incense for the fallen heroes. Also in this month of gratitude, flowers bloom on the graves. The moss-covered tombstones over the years are re-whitewashed, the inscriptions on the stone steles are repainted to be clearer… I admire even more the caretakers who silently do nameless tasks day after day, keeping the cemetery green, clean, and beautiful, so that incense still burns on the graves every day.
This July, “great cause” activities to show gratitude to the families of martyrs’ relatives are being organized into a widespread movement in all localities. These are groups of team members assigned to take turns visiting, telling stories, singing and dancing to the Vietnamese Heroic Mothers to please them and ease their pain of loss; these are the working days of mass organizations helping the families of martyrs’ relatives to re-roof their leaky houses, repair broken electricity lines, and renovate their gardens that lack care…
For the past 5 years, Nghe An Provincial Youth Union has organized and maintained the warm and touching "Gratitude Meal" program in July. Accordingly, depending on actual conditions, each unit organizes at least one meal at the home of a Vietnamese Heroic Mother or a relative of a martyr or a person with meritorious services in the area. In July, the grassroots Youth Union will send members to buy food, go to the home of the martyr's relatives to cook and eat with them. That meal is special not because there are more delicious dishes but because there are more people, more full of emotions. Originally, the families of the martyrs' relatives were short of people, there were wives, mothers whose husbands and children sacrificed their lives in the resistance war to save the country, living alone and lonely. The meal was just me and my shadow, on the tray there was only one bowl, one chopstick... Today's meal, with many members, some picking vegetables, some cooking rice, some braising meat, cooking fish, the kitchen suddenly became bustling. The meal was served, incense was lit on the altar, a mother with tears in her eyes whispered to her husband and children in a choked voice, "Today, I have my grandchildren coming to cook and eat with me, so happy!"
On July nights, at martyrs’ cemeteries, candles of gratitude are lit on the graves. It is like a thousand words of gratitude, a memory sent to the generation of fathers and brothers who died for the country. The candles burn brightly like the tradition of “drinking water, remembering its source” is lit, continuing forever, becoming the eternal morality of many Vietnamese people…
Article: Tue Anh
Illustration: Document
