Spring birthdays

A bunch of daffodils for new beginnings

The most important birthday in Vietnam is your first. This marks the transition of the child moving out of the baby hammock in to the bed with the parents or if possible, a bigger hammock of its own. Friends and family are all invited to the child’s first party, a small feast of food and drink, and will reciprocate the invite with expensive gifts and cash. It’s like a wedding or Tet celebrations, just on a smaller scale.

While daffodils aren’t grown here, they are the first flowers of spring and symbolize rebirth, respect and new beginnings. They’re also the birth flower for March.

So it’s the perfect flower for transition, just like the child moving up to another bed.

It’s also my sister’s birthday. She’s marking a grand transition of her own and I celebrate this with her, although I’m fairly sure there’s no beds involved.

Happy Birthday, Kala.