14TH NATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF VIETNAM

Hobby of buying flowers and ornamental tree to welcome Tet festival

Translated by Thu Minh

Jan 24, 2017 / 06:45 PM

In Hanoi, traditional flower markets such as Quang Ba and Hang Luoc attract most people to visit in Tet holidays. Many people go Nhat Tan peach garden to enjoy Tet atmosphere and buy flower for decorating their house during Tet.

Peach is considered as a symbol for the spring, for the traditional Tet of the Vietnamese. Photo by Hong Hanh.

Narcissus - a picky choice for decorating house on the occasion of the Lunar New Year
Many Hanoians or peope living in the capital believe that if the narcissus flower decorated in their houses during Tet festival bloom on the Lunar New Year's Eva, their families will could have an extremely lucky year with more financial wealth.

Illustrative image

Mrs. Ha Thuy, a resident who has lived in Hanoi for almost 30 years, said that she falls in love with the narcissus since the first time welcoming the Tet festival in the city.
Choosing narcissus to decorate house welcoming the Lunar New Year is an elegant hobby, but very picky, Thuy noted. Notably, narcissus must be soaked in fresh water to bloom beautiful white flowers.
Besides, the special beauty of narcissus comes from flowers, fragrant, leaves, tubers and roots. Therefore, every year, she always comes to the Buoi market to buy the narcissus for decorating her house during the Tet festival.
Currently, there are more people choosing narcissus to decorate their houses during Tet festival as Mrs.Thuy.

Choosing beautiful branches of peach to decorate house duing Tet festival
Vietnamese people go to the flower markets to not only choose and buy beautiful branches of peach or apricot flowers, but also find relaxed moments and hope for a warm spring and a prosperous new year.
In Hanoi, traditional flower markets such as Quang Ba and Hang Luoc attract most people to visit in Tet holidays. Many people go Nhat Tan peach garden to enjoy Tet atmosphere and buy flower for decorating their house during Tet.

Peach is considered as a symbol for the spring, for the traditional Tet of the Vietnamese, by the dazzling beauty and the characteristics of blooming only at the occasion of the Lunar New Year.
Some others do not like the peach branches with the round and similiar image.
Yet others devote several weeks to choose a fade peach branch, that is natural, and placed in a porcelain vase.
In the most gaudy and showing "class" Hanoi must own it comes to training privation loss.
When Spring comes, Hanoians are eagerly to find a peach tree to take home for welcoming New Year. And talking to peach flowers, people always remind Nhat Tan peach or That Thon peach, which is rare and precious, the oldest in the region.
Mr. Ham is the first person in Nhat Tan to figure out how to squeeze That Thon peach for right hatching in Lunar New Year, because this kind of peach hatches in the first Lunar month. That is also the reason why few people like to look after and play That Thon peach.

Illustrative image

That Thon peach is difficult to look after but while watching the shaggy trunk to be blooming for peach branches and crimson, the plump buds, many people must be tough by the beauty full of contrasts.
That Thon peach’s flower is also extremely special, with two colors of velvet red and faded pink. Velvet red ones are double flowers, faded pink ones are single flowers, with bright yellow pistil and faintly scent. The double flowers can possess from 30 - 50 wings.

A That Thon peach tree in Nhat Tan village.

That Thon peach chooses both care-takers and players. A That Thon peach tree should have been planted at least for 10 years to be able to be shaped and trimmed to sell or play. Because That Thon peach has rough stems, blackened phloem like branches of dry wood.