And although the Chinese zodiac says Sunday begins the Lunar Year of the Rabbit, somewhere in history it got lost in translation and became Year of the Cat in Vietnam. Lost in translation, as in by word of mouth, the ancient Chinese word for rabbit pronounced “mao” turned into “meo” for cat in Vietnamese. I pledge allegiance:It took two wars to make me an AmericanTet 1975 also began another Year of the Cat. A Tet traditional dish is “banh chung,” a steamed square cake of sticky rice, mung beans and pork wrapped in banana leaves. And it won him the throne and banh chung its place of honor in every Vietnamese family’s Tet celebration ever since.
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