A Rose Badge on a Yu Lan Day

Composer: Poet – Thich Nhat Hanh, Musical: Phạm Thế Mỹ

Musical genres: Love song

Singer: Hung Thanh

Yu Lan or Hunger Ghost Day, observed on the 15th of the 7th month (Ghost Month) Lunar Calendar, is believed to be the only day when the ancestors or the family deceased would be able to visit home. On this day, a red rose badge shows the mother is still alive while the white one represents mother loss.

Lyrics: A Rose Badge on a Yu Lan Day

A rose for you sister

A rose for you brother

And another one for one whose mother is still with you

For you are to be happier

In case Mother would go someday

Like a flower bunch without the sun

Like a child without a smile

As if you would never grow up

And like the night without stars

Mother, Mother is a still stream

Mother, Mother is a fairy tale dream

A shade up there

An eye, a moon

And a touch at night while being lost

Mother, Mother is a sweet sugar cane shoot

Mother, Mother is a bunch of bananas or areca fruits

A cricket shrill at night

A sun ray at the mulberry field

A great love for life

One day you will come and gaze at mom longingly

You will say Mom, Mom, Mom do you know this?

Know what? – that I do love you?

A red rose has just been badged on your shirt

A red rose has just been badged on your shirt

I beg you brother, I beg you  sister

Please go happy as I do.