The meaning of the five-fruit tray on Tet holiday in the 3 regions

Every time Tet comes, on the altar of every Vietnamese family, there is a tray of five fruits to worship the ancestors. The tray of five fruits on Tet has a profound general meaning, expressing respect to ancestors and wishing for good things for the upcoming new year. Each type of fruit chosen to be arranged in the tray of five fruits has its own specific meaning.

Due to the different living conditions in the Vietnamese areas, there are many different ways to display the five-fruit tray. It is called five-fruit but in fact, the selection and display of what fruits on the tray depends on each locality with its own characteristics of climate, products and cultural concepts. Normally, the five-fruit tray in the North focuses on the five elements, while the five-fruit tray in the Central and Southern regions focuses on the meaning of the fruit, expressing temperament and natural advantages.

The five-fruit tray in the North is not too strict in choosing the fruit but must be in accordance with the five elements in Eastern culture, which is the harmony of all things in heaven and earth and according to the meaning of each fruit. Although it is called a five-fruit tray, today many families choose many fruits with many different colors, to pray for wealth, a prosperous and warm new year.

Southern Vietnamese fruit tray (Photo: doisongphapluat.com)

The Northerners' five-fruit tray usually includes: bananas, grapefruit, peaches, persimmons, tangerines, kumquats, pears... The Northerners' five-fruit tray must have a bunch of bananas because according to the concept, a bunch of bananas is shaped like an open hand, collecting the quintessence of spring to condense into sweet fruit; it also has the meaning of protection and preservation. The traditional way of presentation is to place the bunch of bananas at the bottom to represent the protection of heaven and earth for people. Place the bunch of bananas in the middle to support all the other fruits.

The Central region's five-fruit tray is a bit different from the North's because the land here is barren, with few fruits, so local specialty fruits are very rare. The Central region's five-fruit tray is the simplest, not concerned with form or meaning, so whatever is offered is fine, not in odd numbers like the North, and no fruit is avoided, but mainly to be beautiful and sincerely offered to ancestors. On the other hand, the Central region's five-fruit tray is still fully displayed due to the cultural exchange between the North and the South: bananas, custard apples, figs, coconuts, papayas, mangoes, oranges, ki ma pears, dragon fruit...

Among the three regions, perhaps the Southern people are more meticulous in choosing fruits to display on the five-fruit tray for their ancestors. While the Northern people use bananas as the most important fruit to display on the altar, the Southern people are different. Because the pronunciation is similar to the word "chui" (showing danger), bananas are a fruit that never appear. Also because of the saying: "Cam lam quyt cau" (the orange makes the fruit bear), the Southern people do not display shiny, eye-catching oranges like the Northern people. Southern families often avoid displaying fruits with names that have bad meanings, so their fruit trays do not have pears ("le let"), apples (Southern people call them "bom")... nor durian, even though Southern people normally love to eat durian, and do not choose fruits with bitter or spicy flavors.

The Southern people's five-fruit tray usually has the following fruits: custard apple, coconut, papaya, mango, fig (according to the saying: "Cầu sung just enough to use"), with the base being 3 pineapples, representing stability. In particular, the Southern people's five-fruit tray cannot lack a pair of red-fleshed, green-skinned watermelons, symbolizing the loyalty and chastity of Southern people.

Although the selection and presentation of the five-fruit tray in the three regions are different, the five-fruit tray for Tet is a long-standing traditional cultural feature of the Vietnamese people - vividly expressing the ideas, beliefs and aesthetics of Tet. On Tet, besides green banh chung, red peach blossoms, yellow apricot blossoms... the five-fruit tray on the ancestral altar always reminds descendants to be grateful to their ancestors and expresses the wish for a new year of peace and happiness.

According toCommunist Party of Vietnam