Calligraphy Fruit

Watermelon, coconut, grapefruit, and other fruits are essential during the Vietnamese Lunar New Year for displaying five-fruit trays and giving as gifts to relatives. In recent years, to meet the growing demands of customers, these fruits have been “dressed up” with calligraphy, pictures, and patterns, making them more delicate and conveying several positive messages.

Coconuts and watermelons are decked and embellished in yellow to greet a good new year.

Every year, in preparation for Tet, instructor Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh’s painting class in Viet Tri city offers a special session for students to decorate and design Tet images on various sorts of objects and fruits. Mixed with the red and yellow hues of calligraphy and the green colors of spring flowers, students convey colorful and eye-catching pictures of apricot blooms, peach blossoms, watermelons, chung cake, giay cake, and lion dance.

Teacher Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh stated, "This year-end experiential activity brings joy and excitement to help students relieve stress during class periods. Along with this, kids learn about the qualities of traditional Tet. Following the lecture, students will bring home grapefruits, coconuts, springtime paintings, festivals, and other significant items for their families to showcase throughout Tet. This significant job also teaches students to maintain the beauty of traditional national culture, love for hometown and country, and the distinctive values embedded in Tet rituals."

The pupils were enthusiastic during the calligraphy instruction.

In the days preceding the Lunar New Year, Tet marketplaces, local markets, and internet stores sell unusual and calligraphic fruits. Many tiny enterprises have imported calligraphy fruits to sell. The smooth phrases Phuc, Loc, Tho... on a coconut, watermelon, or grapefruit, together with peach petal and apricot blossom patterns, are particularly appealing to customers, sending many pleasant and heartfelt wishes to the homeowner. As a result, while being many times more expensive than conventional fruits, Tet calligraphy fruit is nevertheless highly sought after by many individuals.

According to traditional culture, Vietnamese people place a high value on ancestor worship during the three days of Tet, thus many families invest a lot of work and money to care for the altar, especially the five-fruit tray with the notion of the more beautiful and comprehensive the altar, the more it demonstrates descendants' respect for their forebears. As a result, new, gorgeous fruits with various connotations for luck and blessings, such as grapefruit, coconut, watermelon, and calligraphy, are popular.

Ms. Bui Minh Yen from Ha Hoa District shared: Recognizing that the market for shopping for display items and gifts on Tet holiday is gradually becoming vibrant and rich, with calligraphy fruit products being purchased in large numbers by people on stores' e-commerce platforms, I ordered a pair of calligraphy grapefruits with the word “Everything is as you wish” from a production facility in Hanoi to display for Tet. The ornamental grapefruit motif is so lovely that I purchased more to present to family. Decorated fruits appear much more luxurious and beautiful."

The grapefruit is embellished with calligraphy.

Choosing the appropriate fruit for calligraphy is not easy. The fruit must be harvested directly from the tree. The coconut still has two stems, one shorter and one longer. Grapefruit and watermelon must be spherical with a smooth surface. To make a beautiful calligraphy fruit, the outside surface of the design must be uniform and flat. Calligraphy grapefruit may be preserved for 20 days to a month, although coconut, melon, and Buddha’s hand are more comfy. Calligraphy coconut is less expensive than grapefruit because it is easier to engrave and write calligraphy, is easier to maintain, and does not have dry or wrinkled skin.

Choosing to buy sculpted fruits and calligraphy has become a pleasure for many people every Spring and Tet, helping to adorn the ancestral altar, decorate the house with more color, and offer the message of prayer Luck and fortune to the family in the future year.

Thu Giang