Festivals

Tết five-fruit tray

The five-fruit tray holds five kinds of fruit placed on the ancestral altar at Tết, an offering to the ancestors and a hope for the new year. Each region arranges it differently. In the South it often holds custard apple, coconut, papaya, mango and fig, whose names sound out the wish “cầu dừa đủ xài” (“pray for just enough to spend”), with the fig for sung túc, prosperity.

In the North the tray usually follows the five elements: green bananas like a hand catching luck, a pomelo or Buddha's hand, oranges or tangerines, red persimmons. Kids only cared about one thing: when do we get to eat it? You had to wait until the offering was done and the tray taken down, and whichever fruit landed in your hand felt like the first luck of the year.

Do you remember? Which fruits were on your family's tray, and which one were you hoping to be given?

💬 Everyone's memories

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