Legend of the Tet Peach Blossom

A peach branch stands on the family altar on the first morning of Tết, the Lunar New Year festival in Vietnam. Its flowers open in clusters of pale pink, with petals as thin as tissue paper. They drift down softly onto the tray of five fruits and onto the red cloth that covers the altar. The scent of peach blossom is faint, never heavy, just enough to tell that spring has come. Every year the family sets out a peach branch, and every year the branch has a story behind it. It is an old legend, handed down by grandparents from one generation to the next.

Long, long ago, on a mountain in the east, there grew a strange and ancient peach tree. It was so big that no one could wrap their arms around it. Its green branches and leaves spread over a wide stretch of land, like a giant umbrella in the middle of the sky. When spring came, the tree flowered white and pink from root to crown, as bright as a rosy cloud resting on the mountain.

Yet what set this peach tree apart from all others was not its flowers. It was the two gods who dwelled in it.

The two gods were named Trà and Uất Lũy. The legend says they were sent down to earth by Ngọc Hoàng, the Jade Emperor. He gave them a special task. They were to dwell in the sacred peach tree, keep watch over the land and drive away every demon and evil spirit around it. The two gods sat on the highest branches of the peach tree. Their eyes looked out in all four directions, and in their hands they held sacred whips. The two gods punished any demon that dared to loiter nearby.

So all the demons were afraid.

The tale says the demons feared Trà and Uất Lũy the way one fears fire. More than that, they feared the peach tree itself, because it was where the gods dwelled, and it carried their sacred breath. The demons only had to see the peach tree from far away to turn and flee. They did not dare come in, did not dare make trouble, did not dare set foot nearby. The people of the land lived in peace, and every Tết passed calmly.

But whenever the last days of the year came around, the story took a turn.

By the custom of the heavenly court, in the days just before Tết, every god who watched over the earthly world had to go up to heaven. There they came before the Jade Emperor and reported on their work of the past year. The two gods were no exception. They made ready for the trip, said farewell to the peach tree and flew up to the heavenly court. Down below, the peach tree still stood there, its flowers still pink. But no god was guarding it anymore.

And the demons knew it.

The wicked demons had lain in wait for a long time, watching for the very moment the two gods were gone. As soon as the gods disappeared behind the clouds, the demons swarmed in. Strange noises rose at the end of the village lanes before dawn. Oil lamps suddenly went out in the middle of the night as the old year turned into the new. Small children woke with a start and cried, and no one knew why. The days of Tết, which should have been the happiest of the year, turned heavy and uneasy. People worried, not knowing how to protect themselves with the two gods so far away.

Then one morning, an old villager sat gazing up at the distant mountain. The elder remembered that since the gods Trà and Uất Lũy had come, no demon had ever dared go near the sacred peach tree. Perhaps the gods' breath still lived in every branch and twig of the tree. If so, the people could bring peach branches home.

The villagers set off together up the mountain. They broke off branches from the sacred tree and carried them home. Each household set a peach branch by its door, as if the two gods stood guard right there. From far away, the demons saw the peach branches, and their courage failed them. The gods' breath was still there, and the gods' power still shone from the pink flowers. The demons did not dare come in. They did not dare come near.

The people passed the days of Tết in peace.

When Trà and Uất Lũy came back from the heavenly court, they heard the story of the peach branches that drove the demons away. Both gods nodded, well pleased. From then on, they left the people one simple instruction with a deep meaning. Every year, when the two gods went up to attend on Heaven, the people should bring peach branches home and set them by their doors. The gods' breath lived in every pink petal and every length of branch. To the demons, seeing a peach branch was like seeing the two gods, and they would not dare do anything.

People in the north of Vietnam say this story is where their custom of displaying peach branches at Tết comes from. A peach branch is a spring flower, and it is also the unseen gatekeeper of each home, standing in for the two gods in the days of Tết when they are away from the earthly world. It is beautiful, sacred and warm all at once. For generations, northern families have set out a peach branch, or even a whole peach tree, at Tết. In Vietnamese folk belief, the peach tree is a sacred thing that drives away evil spirits. So a peach branch at Tết does two jobs. It keeps evil away, and it welcomes the spring. Pink peach blossom opening each spring is a mark of the north, unlike the yellow mai blossom of the south.

The story of the two gods does not live in faraway books. It lives right here, in the pink peach branch blooming right there in the family home. Each petal that falls on the altar is the two gods nodding from heaven, saying that this Tết, this home has been watched over.