Five-fruit tray (Source: internet)Among thenumerous offerings that are required to decorate ancestral altars during thetraditional New Year, a five-fruit tray is indispensable for each Vietnamesefamily, which is a symbol of the wholeheartedness and filial piety of thepresent generation towards their ancestors and the Genie of the Land.
Like otherpopular rituals, the preparation of a five‑fruit tray for Tet has become anestablished convention. During the few days just before Tet, the Vietnamesebegin to buy the necessary fruits for this purpose. A five‑fruit tray isusually composed of a hand of green bananas, a ripe pomelo (or a Buddha's hand,a shaddock), oranges, persimmons, sapodilla plums, a bunch of kumquat, and inrecent years, one can add mangoes and grapes from southern Vietnam, or applesand pears from China. Although it is called a five‑fruit tray, it does notnecessarily contain exactly five kinds of fruit.
Arrangingfruits on the crimson, hourglass‑shaped wooden tray is really an art. One hasto combine the colours and shapes of the different fruits in arranging them onthe tray to make it look like a still life picture.
To ensurebalance on the tray, the hand of bananas is usually put in the middle with thebananas pointing upright and the pomelo on the concave surface of the hand ofbananas. Then the oranges, sapodilla plums, apples are added in the gapsbetween the bananas and the pomelo.
The last littlegaps are filled in with little kumquats to create a full, compact tray offruits. In colours, the fruit‑tray presents a harmonious combination of thedifferent colours of fruits: dark green of banana, light yellow of pomelo, deepred of persimmon, reddish yellow of orange and kumquat, light green of apple,and dark brown of sapodilla plum. To complete the picture, the fruit tray willbe covered here and there with some small, fresh leaves of kumquat.
The five-fruit tray, together with horizontal lacqueredboards engraved with Chinese characters, parallel sentences written on redpaper, ornamental kumquat and peach trees, and popular Hang Trong and Dong Hopictures, has transcended its material value to become a spiritual symbol, anoriginal national product in the spiritual life of the Vietnamese.
At present, while many of the ancient spiritual valueshave sunk into oblivion, the custom of arranging the five‑fruit tray on thealtar during the lunar New Year days is being jealously preserved as a finelegacy of Vietnam's traditional culture.-VNA
