Tet Nguyen Dan, also called Vietnamese Tet holiday, is the most important and sacred festival to Vietnamese people. It is a relaxing and special occasion for everyone to think about the achievements as well as review unfinished things of the past year and draw plans for the New Year. A five-fruit tray which cannot be missed in Tet holiday is the symbol for the admiration and gratitude of the Vietnamese to Heaven and Earth and their ancestors to express their aspiration for prosperity, good luck, good health and happiness.

The custom of preparing a five-fruit tray derives from that the five fruits are symbolic of the five basic elements of the Oriental philosophy: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. It is also believed that these five fruits are symbols of the five fingers of a man’s hand that is used to produce physical wealth for his own use and to make offerings to his ancestors. In a simpler way; however, the fruits represent the quintessence that Heaven and Earth bless humans. This is one of the general perceptions of life of the Vietnamese, which is “When taking fruit, you should think of the grower”.

With that special meaning, no matter whether the rich or the poor, on New Year’s Eve, Vietnamese people always select the best five-fruit tray for the holiday. What kinds of fruit are included in the tray varies from one region to another due to their differences in climate and fruit crops. In the North, the tray is ornamented with pomelos, peaches, kumquats, bananas and persimmons. Differently, the southern people prepare a big tray with pairs of watermelons, coconuts, papayas, custard apples, mangos, and figs. Nowadays, much improved living standard of the people has led to a greater sophistication in choosing fruits for the altar for the Tet. A tray can contain more expensive, rarer fruits like grapes and pears, regardless of that, it is still a five-fruit tray, a nice offering of the Vietnamese people to their ancestors.

How to display the fruits on the tray is also very important, which not only makes the tray more attractive but ensure the balance as well. Normally, the hand of bananas is usually placed in the middle of the tray with the bananas pointing upright and the pomelo on the concave surface of the hand of bananas. Then people put the oranges, sapodilla plums, apples in the gaps between the bananas and the pomelo. The last little gaps are filled in with little kumquats to create a full, compact tray of fruits. To the color factor, the fruit tray presents a harmonious combination of the different colors of fruits: dark green of banana, light yellow of pomelo, deep red 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 will be covered here and there with some small, fresh leaves of kumquat.

The five fruit tray becomes a nice custom of Vietnamese people in Tet holiday. It presents for the gratitude for the ancestors and the desire of happiness, good luck and a life of plenty. The tray is one of the things cannot be missed when Tet festival comes. Along with Banh Chung cake, the peach, apricot and kumquat, the five fruit tray makes the Tet so special, happy and warm for the Vietnamese.