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The tale of "Banh Chung" and "Banh Day"

Once upon a time, that had a king who was so old so he wanted to abdicate. He had had few wives who had given bird twelve sons. All of his sons had grown up and also were great people. The King was confused about choosing.
“All of them are talent people. It is so difficult that I can choose a person and nobody can be jealous” said the King.
vietnamese fairy tales
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“My Lord the king, we can have a contest” said a servant.
“Oh, it is a good idea but what is subject of the contest?” said the king
 “Meaning dishes, which we can put on ancestral altar” said the servant.
“Great, let’s doing” said the king.
The king called his son to come on and said: 
“My sons, I don’t have many time and I want one of you to become the king. Now, anybody who can find dishes which not only are delicious but still have great meaning to put on ancestral altar will become the king.” 

After hearing, princes raced to find. They went to all directions, collected all extraordinary and rare dishes. Whatever dishes they heard they also tried to find.
Lang Lieu who was 8th prince lost his mother when he was a child. Therefore, he had lived alone and now he had no helping. When rest of the princes forced their servant raced to find, Lang Lieu was lying on his bed thinking. He had thought about dishes he had eaten in his life for few hours until he fell in sleep. He dreamt. In his dream, he saw himself and other princes were in the contest. When rest of princes had started cooking he, in other hand, still didn’t know how to do. Suddenly, an angle flew from sky down front him. 
“Lang Lieu, I come here to help you” said the angle.
“How should I do?, ” said Lang Lieu
“Nothing was bigger than the sun and the earth; nothing was more precious than rice”, she added, “come here and give me a hand”.
She asked him to clean glutinous rice and she went to collect mug beans. While she was making cakes she also explaining.
“Those cakes, we will call “Banh Chung”, symbolize the earth so they have to be square. Mug beans and meat are filled into the cakes to symbolize plants and animals which are living in the earth. The earth are covered by trees and field so you must cover the cakes by green leaves.” Then she tied cakes.
“So, it has done. Now we will make cakes symbolize the sun, we will call “Banh Day”. The cakes will be round and white” she said. Then she ground glutinous rice and molded.Then she put all cakes into two big pots then poured water and cooked.
Lang Lieu had woken up as that time cakes were being cooked. He started making cakes like the cakes in his dream.
The contest was coming. While others brought luxurious dishes, rare dishes or extraordinary dishes Lang Lieu, in other hand, brought simple cakes which were not attracted. Everyone also mowed and shook their heads as they saw the cake but when they ate them all of them couldn’t prevent themselves to talk a praise.
“Wow, it is so delicious”, said a noble, “extraordinary flavor was from simple things”.
Hung Vuong also surprised as he had eaten a piece. He flipped it down and up to observe but he didn’t find out anything. He asked Lang Lieu how to make the cakes. Lang Lieu talked him recipes and also the strange dream.
Over afternoon, Hung Vuong announced the winner.
“The 8th will be come the next king” said the king, then he took up “Banh Chung” and “Banh Day” over his head and added: “They were not only delicious but also take great meanings. They symbolize the earth and the sun and also field where we spend time and effort. It is so simple and also extraordinary, easy making. Only Lang Lieu who is talent person could imagine”.
Lang Lieu, after being the king, had still made the cakes to put on ancestral altar on Tet holiday which tradition was maintained to now day.  
THE END
"Translated by Hung Nguyen"

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List of Vietnamese fairy tales
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BÀI ĐĂNG ĐƯỢC XEM NHIỀU

List of Vietnamese fairy tales

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