As the soul of Vietnamese Tet – square sticky rice cake, round sticky rice cake, and cylindrical sticky rice cake are dishes that are not only delicious but also carry a lot of deep national significance. Let’s join Cooking Tips to explore the origins and meanings of these cakes during this Tet holiday!
1 The origin and characteristics of Bánh Chưng and Bánh Giầy
The origin of Bánh Chưng and Bánh Giầy
During the reign of King Hùng the 6th, the king wanted to find a type of offering to worship the Ancestors. While other princes brought various delicacies, the eighteenth prince, Lang Liêu, guided by a divine being, brought two delicious cakes made from familiar rice grains, which are Bánh Chưng and Bánh Giầy.
Symbolizing the Earth, Bánh Chưng has a square shape, beautifully crafted, with a filling of fatty pork and mung beans, and is wrapped carefully in dong leaves and boiled until cooked.
Symbolizing Heaven, Bánh Giầy is round and pure white, made from glutinous rice that is pounded into a smooth, sticky, and fragrant dough. The two cakes represent Heaven and Earth, embracing all beings, reflecting the gratitude for parental nurturing, unmatched by anything in this world.
Characteristics of Bánh Chưng and Bánh Giầy
A beautiful and standard Bánh Chưng has equal square sides, each side usually over 20cm, with a thickness of 5 – 6 cm. The outside of the cake is wrapped in two to three layers of selected dong leaves that have been cleaned and tied with 4 or 6 bamboo strings.
Rice cakes are round, with a chewy and sticky texture due to being thoroughly steamed and then pounded in a mortar until they become smooth. The cakes have a diameter of 5 – 7cm and a thickness of 1 – 2cm. Once completed, the cakes are wrapped in fresh banana leaves and served with Vietnamese pork sausage.
Refer to some delicious rice cake recipes for a fuller Tet celebration
2 The meaning of Banh Chung and Banh Giay
Representing Heaven and Earth
As a nation with a long-standing rice civilization, each dish of the Vietnamese people always carries a story or a myth – Banh Chung and Banh Giay are no exception.
When appearing in Lang Lieu’s dream and revealing to him, the divine being explained in detail that the main ingredient of the cake is rice – the heavenly pearl that nurtures the soul of the Vietnamese people.
Moreover, the square shape of Banh Chung and the round shape of Banh Giay represent Heaven and Earth, the two entities that the people worship, always embracing, surrounding, and protecting the people.
Expressing Love
It is no coincidence that Banh Chung and Banh Giay are chosen as particularly important dishes during Tet. Just by looking at their exterior shape, you can sense the meticulousness and effort of the person who made the cake.
The Banh Chung is wrapped squarely and carefully, with the sticky rice grains selected meticulously to be uniform and intact.
Golden green beans, already shelled, pork must have a bit of lean and fat to be truly delicious, dong leaves must be selected from smooth, large, and uniform green leaves. Especially, banh chung must be wrapped in dong leaves to be authentic.
Thanks to the skillful hands and boundless love wrapped in these banh chung and banh giay, these cakes become even more special and precious.
Representing the universe and human existence
In fertility beliefs of the Vietnamese, banh giay symbolizes yin, while banh chung represents yang.
On the altar during the festival, banh giay is for Mother Tiên, and banh chung is for Father Rồng – legendary figures who created the Lạc Việt nation later on.
The combination of these two types of cakes during Tet expresses the desire for growth and development.
Representing abundance and prosperity
A banh chung consists of various ingredients from animals to plants such as fatty pork, green beans, sticky rice, dong leaves representing wealth and warmth. Banh giay, with its round and full shape, symbolizes completeness and wholeness in life.
Although these are small and simple things, they encompass all the hopes of the people during each Tet holiday and the arrival of spring.
3 Origin and characteristics of banh tet
Origin of banh tet
From the “time of wielding swords to open up the land” in the southern region, the Vietnamese had the opportunity to absorb not only the culture but also the very distinctive cuisine of the Cham people.
Through the process of cultural exchange and transformation, the Tet cake, which is still commonly made by people in the South and Central regions during Tet, was born from the personification of Linga of the god Shiva according to Cham beliefs.
Moreover, thanks to the polytheistic beliefs of Cham culture, including the fertility worship and rice god worship, we have the Tet cake of today.
In addition to the above origin, there is another legend that tells of the time when King Quang Trung fought the Qing invaders in the spring of 1789, when he allowed his soldiers to rest, the king was invited by a soldier and was able to taste this strange cake.
Seeing the soldier’s love for his wife, his homeland, and this cake, the king then ordered everyone to wrap this cake to eat during Tet and called it Tet cake. Over time, the name of the cake has been modified to bánh tét as it is known today.
Characteristics of Tet cake
With a cylindrical shape about 20 – 25cm tall, Tet cake is also called cylindrical cake because of its appearance. The cake is wrapped in fresh, intact, and bright green banana leaves, tightly bound with leaf veins. Typically, two pieces of Tet cake are connected by banana leaf veins to form a pair.
It has similarities to the square cake in terms of filling, which includes glutinous rice, mung beans, and fatty pork, differing only in the outer layer of banana leaves. Additionally, Tet cake can also be wrapped in a vegetarian version with mung bean, black bean, or banana fillings in various sizes, making it very diverse.
4 Meaning of Banh Tet
Representing national traditions
In the days when the country was still in turmoil, these simple cakes not only filled the stomach but also warmed the hearts of soldiers on the front lines, helping them focus more on fighting.
Thanks to these cakes, the affection between husbands and wives grew closer, and the love for their homeland became even more profound.
King Quang Trung was not only skilled in warfare, but he also thought about national traditions when he ordered the making of these Tet cakes during the Tet holiday to remind future generations to appreciate their roots more.
Representing protection and love
In the days leading up to Tet, the image of grandmothers and mothers carefully wrapping Banh Tet, pouring all their love into the cakes they made, is heartwarming.
Each layer of cake wraps around each other, the mung bean wraps the filling, the sticky rice wraps the mung bean, and the fragrant banana leaves gently encase the entire cake, tenderly, like a mother’s love wrapping around her children.
Banh Tet can be made and eaten all year round, but the Tet Banh Tet is truly meaningful. Just like every mother hopes her children will come home, especially during the Tet and Lunar New Year.
Representing warmth and happiness
Each ingredient wrapped in Banh Tet represents a necessary ingredient in life. Fatty meat, mung beans, and sticky rice are tightly intertwined, creating a cake that every Southern Vietnamese person loves.
The slices of Banh Tet are cut with banana leaf veins, revealing the full filling inside, then respectfully placed on the altar and offerings of the people with the hope that every year will be filled with warmth, happiness, and abundance.
With the information that TasteVN provides, you have somewhat understood more about the origin and meaning of bánh chưng, bánh giầy, and bánh tét. Wishing you a warm Tet season with your family and enjoy delicious cakes in the most complete way.
