Hanoians display peach trees, while Saigonese choose yellow apricots to celebrate Tet.
Near Tet, families are decorating their homes with eye-catching decorations, many of which have colors related to the five elements. In the North, peaches are typical trees for Tet. According to Assoc. Beautiful peaches are usually large flowers, delicate petals, solid roots, luxuriant branches and leaves, and high position. Many well-off families will come to the garden to find the hundreds of years of lost peach stumps, with rough bodies, bold wings, rent from 20 to 100 million VND.
In addition to peaches, Hanoians play Tet also have narcissus or white apricot. Daffodils were bought by the Hanoians from December 20 to prune so that the flowers bloom in accordance with the New Year’s Eve. And the white apricot – one of the “ten great names of flowers” of Vietnam, has a slim, pure shape, and symbolizes the personality of a gentleman. Displaying white apricot blossom has become an elegant hobby of many Ha Thanh people in ancient times, only the noble houses have.
In recent years, Hanoians also play new trees such as snow. Small white flowers, thin branches, about 1m high, often planted hyacinths and favored by apartment households. In addition, the Hanoians decorate kumquats, with the concept of “four precious” kumquats, each tree needs to have green fruits, yellow fruits, buds, green leaves, and white flower spots.
Meanwhile, many Saigon people think that Tet must have fruit trees, so every family has apricot trees, at least 2 pots of ivy (the Northern people often call it kumquat). Historian Dr. Han Nguyen Nguyen Nha said, Saigon people love apricot trees because the yellow color represents the earth element – the center of the five elements and the same color as the money, representing luxury and wealth. The beautiful apricot trees are large apricot stump, with a definitive rise and falling to the top, especially with many buds.
In recent years, the southerners tend to buy apricot blossom until the end of the 10th day, or until the flowers fall off, they will be sent back to the garden house to take care of them, so that the next Tet will pick up the trees again. Coming to Saigon, visitors also see the popularity of marigolds. This is a flower of auspicious meaning, longevity and easy to care for, suitable for the climate of the South.
A similarity in the Tet decoration style of the Hanoi and Saigon people is that each family buys more colorful and fragrant flowers to display in the house. Hanoians often choose peach branches, lilies or dandelions, dahlia, violet … And Saigonese often buy flowers for two different purposes: Marigold is often used to worship the ancestors ) and worship flowers depending on the owner’s preference to worship gods such as lilies, sand flowers …
In addition, before Tet, people take advantage of cleaning the house, buying food and decorations. Hanoians will go to Hang Ma market, Hang Luoc flower market while looking at the streets, buying lucky money, firecrackers, couplets, and decorations. And the Saigonese often go to Hai Thuong Lan Ong street – the Tet street of the Chinese to buy gals and couplets. The word above will bring the homeowner’s wishes about the new year, for example, for health, to buy the word “Tho”, for money, to buy the word “Loc”.
On New Year’s Eve, the Northern people will go out to pick buds at the beginning of the year or buy a pair of sugarcane with whole roots and tops and put them on both sides of the altar for luck. According to Assoc.Prof.Dr Nguyen Huy Thieu, in the folk concept of sugarcane is the “cosmic tree” connecting heaven to earth, as a bridge for the gods to return to heaven. And the southerners will go to the pagoda ceremony on New Year’s Eve and pick up buds to pray for good luck.
Ngoc Diep – Thanh Hang/vnexpress