3. Traditional Banquets

Before the 1945 Revolution, formal meals in the traditional way were the plague of the old Vietnamese society, particularly in rural areas. Ruled by Confucian etiquette, formal meals held on the occasion of weddings, death anniversaries, even funerals, ritual village banquets, the celebration of promotions brought pain to many a family. Hundreds of guests were invited, each of whom was expected to do the same when his turn came. Communal pressure was such that nobody dared evade those "oral debts". To pay for them, people got into debt. Those in dire straits had to leave their villages.

The Revolution and thirty years of war broke that centuries-old custom, particularly in the liberated areas. The New Life movement launched by Ho Chi Minh urged sobriety, even austerity. Customs related to "eating and drinking in the village" together with expensive family and social celebrations practically vanished.

However, for a dozen years now, they have re-surfaced in the wake of new socio-economic factors. The resurgence of spirituality since the end of the war together with the need to reaffirm national cultural identity in face of modernism and Western cultures have resulted in a return to religion, village and family traditions with the rites and customs in their train. In face, these have been easily restored thanks to the relative improvement of living standards due to the policy of renovation started in 1986. The neuveaux riches, profiteers, as well as those who stubbornly long for the past, have taken the lead.

And so traditional banquets have re-appeared, tolerated and more and more accepted by public opinion, to the detriment of wage-earners and impecunious families. Weddings have no longer been celebrated the New-Life way: a meeting of relatives and friends of the bride and the bridegroom, with only tea, sweets and songs. Formal meals, at home or at some restaurants, are now a must, with aroud one hundred guests, and families of the newlyweds have to spend at least three million Vietnamese dong on one such occasion in the towns. But it must be said that generally speaking, they are not always the losers in this game: gifts brought by the guests, mostly in the form of money in envelopes, fill the deficit, if any. It is the guests who eventually bear the cost. In the season of marriages (autumn) many among my friends lament: "To cope with invitations to three weddings, two-thirds of my pay will be gone this month"-each wedding gift averageing 100,000 Vietnamese dong.

A peasant household may have to labour several decades to pay off its marriage debts. Formal meals held on the occasion of the death anniversariesand funerals, particularly in the countryside, are more and more costly and wasteful.

At traditional banquets held on the occasion of village festival at the communal house trays of victuals are laid out for four persons sitting on mats spread on the floor according to the order of precedence. The rules are that the food should include four plates of boiled meat and four bowl of food cooked in liquids. The unsophicated menu of a co giam gem comprised mostly boiled pork seasoned with vinegar and served with raw vegetables

The numbers of plate should always be an even one. In the towns, a traditional banquet comprises also four solid dishes: spring rolls, fried pork paste, boiled pork paste and sweet-sour salad served on plates, and four liquid dishes served in big bowls: bamboo shoot cooked with far pork, vermicelli, strips of drieds squid, fish bladder. The list may vary a great deal and include rare and expensive items: sea-swallow's nest, abalone, fragrant mushroms, stuffed pigeon, shark fin, etc. Boiled chicken eaten with a little salt mixed with lomen juice and lemon leave cut into fine strips cannot be absent from a dinner offered on the occasion of the death anniversary of a family member. A must item in the wedding banquet is a plate of steamed glutinous rice colored in red, the color of luck and happiness, with momordica juice.

A tray of food served at a traditional banquet is a pleasure for the eyes as well as the palate. This should not be held responsible for the abusive banqueting often perpetrated of "respect for the past" and "repayment of oral debts."