HO CHI MINH CITY – Many people like to have gold for luck, so this year’s God of Fortune day, gold-plated crabs are also chosen by many families for the offering tray.
From the early morning of the 10th of the lunar calendar, many families in Ho Chi Minh City have been busy going to the market to buy offerings to the God of Tai. In addition to traditional items, some families this year changed their choices of offerings to the God of Fortune and shopping for good luck.
Instead of buying a set of three slugs including bacon, white shrimp, and duck eggs like every year, Ms. Thanh’s family in Binh Tan chose an offering tray with golden-leaf crabs for about 2 million VND including 2 crabs.
Doan Thi Anh Thu, CEO of King Crab, said that the gold-plated crab products here were launched during the Lunar New Year and also sold well on this day of the God of Fortune.
Currently, her chain offers 3 sets of crabs with prices ranging from 1.5 million to nearly 3 million dongs, which means 1 to 3 crabs with a shell inlaid with gold leaf, of which the most favorite set is 3 million dongs.
“People like to have gold for luck, so we came up with this idea. Yesterday to this morning, the store sold more than 30 gold-plated crabs,” she said.
In addition, other families in Saigon are still “loyal” to the traditional offerings. Ms. Sang, who lives on Cach Mang Thang Tam Street, said she spent 192,000 dongs for a set of three slugs consisting of half a kilo of bacon, 2 ounces of white shrimp, 3 duck eggs, a kilogram of tangerines and 4 potted branches.
“The price of the necessary items for worship this year has only increased slightly compared to normal. The price of bacon has increased a bit, especially the flowers have increased significantly. Normally, a bunch of 12-flower coins costs 60,000-70,000 VND, today today. to 120,000 dongs,” said Ms. Sang.
As a small business family, Trong Nghia’s 10th-morning offerings to the God of Wealth, worth 550,000 VND, bought from Rach Ong market (ward 2, district 8) include snakehead fish, shrimp, meat, roasted pork, sweet potato, betel nut, and areca. , votive and flowers.
“The price this year is not as high as last year’s God of Fortune, just a little higher than weekdays. Fruits and flowers are more expensive than 10,000-20,000 VND per bunch,” he said.
At Hoa Hung market (District 10, Ho Chi Minh City), people go to buy offerings early, causing a traffic jam in front of the market at 8 am. Grilled snakehead fish here ranges from 60,000-100,000 VND each, from 4 ounces to more than one kilogram. Bacon inched from 120,000 VND to 160,000 VND per kg…
Most of the traditional markets in Ho Chi Minh City on the morning of the 10th have more stalls selling seasonal grilled snakehead fish. At Binh Tien market (District 6, Ho Chi Minh City), the largest grilled snakehead fish is priced at 100,000 VND and the smallest is 50,000 VND with vegetable vermicelli.
Many small traders at the markets also confirmed that this year’s items of offerings to the god of fortune did not spike like every year. Ms. Hanh, the owner of a roast pork shop on Pham Van Chieu Street (Go Vap), said that this morning alone, nearly 70 kg of roasted pork has been sold, 3 times higher than usual.
“This year, people tighten their spending, so on the day of God of Fortune, I only dare to increase 10,000 VND per kilogram to 370,000 VND,” said Ms. Hanh. Also selling well, Ms. Hoa, a small trader at Pham Van Hai market (Tan Binh), said that roast pork was sold out from 8 am.
With snakehead fish, most of the small traders at the markets said that their output doubled compared to normal days but still decreased compared to the same period last year. Currently, the price of fresh snakehead fish in some markets is around 60,000-80,000 VND per kg. This price is equal to the same period last year but compared to before Tet, an increase of 5,000 VND per kg.
Mr. Hoa, a trader selling snakehead fish in Ho Chi Minh City, said that in the early morning of February 10, he supplied to the market about 5 tons of snakehead fish at the price of 43,000 VND per kg. This year, snakehead fish has a good season, so the price does not increase suddenly, but only slightly inched from 2,000-3,000 VND per kg. “If we compare this year’s output with other years, the demand for snakehead offerings will decrease by about 5%,” said Mr. Hoa.
According to Mr. Hoa, the reason is that people choose to add new products to replace traditional products. Statistics of Binh Dien Wholesale Market in Ho Chi Minh City also show that, from the night of February 8 to the morning of February 9, the amount of seafood entering the market reached more than 780 tons.
In which, the amount of snakehead fish to the market accounted for nearly 50%, reaching 300-400 tons. Compared to last year, snakehead fish production this year has not changed much.