BAC NINH, Vietnam (UCAN) -- People suffering from leprosy in northern Vietnam exchanged traditional gifts for the Lunar New Year to show they care for each other.

Twenty men and women with leprosy, their relatives and staff workers of the leprosarium in Qua Cam made 500 rice buns for other patients during the Vietnamese New Year, or Tet, festival, which was celebrated on Feb. 17.

People in northern Vietnam make banh chung, a large bun of sticky rice mixed with green beans, pork fat and spices, steamed in banana leaves. They believe this to be a symbol of the earth and give it to each other in thanksgiving for the past year. In addition, they also place a banh chung on the family altar table to thank god.

The state-run leprosarium with 129 patients, 30 of them Catholics, is 35 kilometers north of Ha Noi. It was founded by a Catholic priest in 1913 and has maintained close collaboration with the Catholic Church even after coming under the control of Communist authorities. This year the Church organized a New Year party for residents.

"We are very happy that we made the buns by ourselves instead of receiving them from others," Hoang Van Dung told UCA News on Feb. 14. "We can tell one another what we experienced in our life," said 70-year-old Dung, who has spent more than half his life at the facility.

Residents also offered the buns to people from other leprosy centers, he added, saying he was happy to be part of the "good deed done by patients." This tradition of making and distributing banh chung among people with leprosy was initiated by the Catholic Church in 1992.

Lien, a staff worker at the leprosarium who helped slaughter a pig for the preparations, told UCA News they had to prepare ingredients the previous day for the banh chung, which took them 10 hours to make.

Pham Van Luong, 63, said that by making banh chung, patients felt useful and respected. In the past they were scorned by neighbors, recalled Luong, who has been in the leprosarium since 1991.

Father Joseph Le Quang Uy, who works among leprosy patients in northern Vietnam, told UCA News that for this year's festival, he provided 16 million dong (US$1,000) from benefactors. With this, residents of 12 northern leprosariums, including the one in Qua Cam, made 1,600 banh chung.

In the past, Father Uy explained, banh chung was made at Qua Cam and then delivered to other leprosariums. The Redemptorist priest has financially supported this tradition for the past decade.

On Feb. 14, the Church organized a party with many traditional dishes for Qua Cam patients and their relatives, staff workers and local authorities.

Bach Duc Minh, director of the leprosarium, told UCA News that through such a party, "We have an opportunity to understand the patient's situation." Admitting that the staff can provide only physical care to patients, Minh expressed appreciation Catholic workers who provide spiritual support.

Sister Anna Nguyen Thi Xuan, a member of the Sacred Heart Secular Institute of Bac Ninh, works at the leprosarium. She told UCA News the yearend party organized by the Church at the leprosarium was an opportunity for patients, Church workers and local authorities to understand each other better.

Sister Xuan recalled that Qua Cam residents have made banh chung since 1992, when she began working there. She said the tradition was initiated by Cardinal Paul Pham Dinh Tung, who was then bishop of Bac Ninh, and the late Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, former coadjutor archbishop of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), who was in Ha Noi after serving a prison term.

She said she led a group of priests, nuns, people with leprosy and staff workers from Qua Cam to visit Dong Lenh leprosarium in Tuyen Quang province, 220 kilometers to the northwest, on Feb. 13.

There they organized a party and offered 110 banh chung, sweets and clothes to 28 patients and to staff workers, she said. Catholics from Tan Binh parish, seven kilometers from the Dong Lenh facility, also offered patients various foods. She said this was the first time such a yearend party was held by the Church at the leprosarium. Local authorities also were invited, she added.

Nguyen Van Thuan, 29, whose parents have leprosy, told UCA News, "For the first time I joined such a party with many priests and government authorities." Thuan expressed hope that through such events, patients will not be abandoned by society any more.

Other patients said that this Church-organized party enabled them to meet friends they had not seen for as long as 40 years.

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