The simple but elegant beauty of peach blossoms in Nghe An

Peach blossoms on Tet holiday have been associated with the thousand-year-old customs of the Northern people, just like the apricot blossoms are with the Southern people. Rich or poor, on Tet holiday, people buy peach blossoms to display in their homes. Since childhood, I have seen my father set aside a special place for peach blossoms when preparing the altar.

When digging for flowers in the countryside, people only cut off the branch, about the size of a thumb, burn the cut part and put it in a bottle or vase filled with water… but who would dig up the whole tree and cut off the huge branch like today!

Rustic peach blossoms blooming beside the house. Photo: Xuan Thuy

In the past few years, a new “brand” has emerged in Nghe An: Lao peach, Ky Son peach. This is a wild peach with white moldy branches. People load huge peach branches onto trucks, at first glance they look like dry, bulging firewood! At first, we didn’t appreciate the beauty, thinking that the rich were being extravagant! Now it has become a trend among the rich. There are branches that can be carried by three or four people, worth tens of millions of dong.

“The wheel is spinning”, the country peach blossom – the faded peach blossom is back on top! Perhaps it is the first to be on top because of its low price. Country people are happy to sell peach branches – no matter how big they are – for 2-3 million! It is on top because its flowers are very beautiful, gradually fading from white to pink, then purple, dark red… the more you look at it, the more beautiful it is.

The beauty of peach blossoms is simple, rustic, yet elegant and tender. There are large peach branches that cost tens of millions of dong. Fortunately, there are tycoons who have their eyes on peach blossoms in the countryside and pay a very generous price.

In recent years, the Tet flower market has lasted for a whole month. Peach blossoms, kumquat trees, poinsettias, silk flowers, ornamental plants... fill the centers of the districts.

As a tradition, every year at the corner of the market there is a group of "common people" innocently selling and buying. Those are peach branches "giao long", growing straight, brown-yellow, mixed with green, each bud is as far as a finger apart... They are real peaches, but they are "in the shade" peach trees that have to reach out to the light. They do not bend according to positions such as ngu phuc, truc do, bat phong, tam da, long giang, phu tu,... or anything. If that were the case, perhaps it should be called "the plowing whip"? In return, the buying and selling is very rustic and warm.

Peach blossoms are as simple as country people. Photo: Xuan Thuy

The sellers sometimes only have one or two peach branches, and they offer a price of 30,000-50,000 VND per branch. The buyers bargain, only reducing the price by a few thousand... Then they reach an agreement. The crumpled coins are straightened, counted, and folded into tens of thousands by the buyers. The sellers receive the money and count it carefully...

The end of the day was neat! The seller helped the buyer tie the peach blossoms carefully to the bicycle to avoid getting in the way. They greeted and wished each other a happy New Year, sincerely. The seller thanked the buyer. The buyer thanked the seller in the bustling New Year's Eve afternoon of the city!

The rustic blooming flowers make Tet full of flavor. Photo: Xuan Thuy