Special offerings for the Dragon Boat Festival

In recent years, in Phu Tho province, the offerings for the Dragon Boat Festival (Tet Doan Ngo) have included a full spread of fresh fruits, sticky rice, rice wine made from purple and yellow glutinous rice, etc., with many attractive designs and forms, making them a popular choice among consumers.

The Dragon Boat Festival (Tết Đoan Ngọ, meaning "killing insects") is one of the special festivals according to Vietnamese folk beliefs, celebrated at noon on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month every year. In 2024, this festival falls on Monday, June 9th.

On this day, every household prepares an offering to their ancestors, including fruits such as lychees, plums, betel nuts, glutinous rice wine, rice cakes, and various kinds of sweet soups... with the wish to ward off diseases and bring health, peace, and good fortune to the family. It is believed that this is the time when fruits on the trees and leaves on the branches begin to bloom and bear fruit, and they perform the ancestral worship ritual hoping for a bountiful harvest. After the Dragon Boat Festival ceremony comes the custom of killing insects; people eat sour and astringent foods to eliminate insects and ward off diseases.

In recent years, the service of preparing ceremonial trays for the Dragon Boat Festival has become popular among people in the province.

On this day, fruit and offering shops everywhere display complete and beautifully presented offering trays, priced from 180,000 to 700,000 VND. Having worked in this business for 5 years, Ms. Lo Thuy Trang, owner of an offering tray business for the Dragon Boat Festival in Viet Tri City, Phu Tho province, said that every year on May 5th, she prepares about 100 offering trays to "kill insects," selling them for 186,000 VND each, symbolizing good fortune. These trays include: 3 fresh lotus flowers, 3 betel leaves, 3 ash cakes, 5 glutinous rice cakes, plums, lychees, purple sticky rice wine, and yellow sticky rice wine.

“The highlight of the offering tray is the lychee and plum, symbolizing the sweetness and hardships of life. The white lotus flower represents purity, nobility, and the solemnity of the host when offering to their ancestors. The sticky rice cake is a delicious treat that doubles the happiness. With the principle of personally selecting fresh ingredients, ensuring food safety and hygiene, and preparing everything with sincerity, we want our customers to have a complete offering tray,” Ms. Trang said.

Not only traditional markets, but online marketplaces are also bustling at this time. With 3 years of experience in preparing offerings for the Dragon Boat Festival, Nguyen Thi Xuan Quynh from Lam Thao district said: This time, her family is taking online orders for offering sets priced from 250,000 to 700,000 VND to serve customers who want to buy them for the Dragon Boat Festival.

The most expensive set, priced at 700,000 VND, includes: Fruits (lychee, peach, plum, rambutan), betel nuts and leaves, sticky rice, glutinous rice wine (made from golden flower rice and purple glutinous rice), various traditional cakes (pig skin cake, ash cake, scallions), local flowers (lotus, lily), money bag-shaped steamed buns...

Ms. Quynh further shared: “Sets of offerings priced from 250,000 to 400,000 VND will be more popular because they suit the budgets of many families. We started taking orders for Dragon Boat Festival offerings from the 1st of May in the lunar calendar and gradually fulfilled orders for customers from the afternoon of the 4th and the morning of the 5th of May in the lunar calendar. The closer it gets to the festival, the scarcer the items become. Even with higher prices, we don't dare accept more late orders for fear of running out of stock.”

Ms. Le Thi Huyen Anh from Viet Tri City said that for many years, she has gone to the market early in the morning to buy offerings for the Dragon Boat Festival. This year, thanks to a friend's recommendation, she ordered a ceremonial tray a week ago for 300,000 VND, including: lychees, plums, glutinous rice wine, purple glutinous rice, and a basket of traditional flowers (lotus and areca flowers), delivered on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month. What I like about this tray is the elaborate and skillful decoration. The traditional Vietnamese dishes, arranged with betel leaves, areca nuts, and lotus flowers, placed in a traditional bamboo basket, create a harmonious and rustic beauty when offered to the ancestral altar.

A beautifully decorated offering tray, complete with all the necessary items, is presented to ancestors on the Dragon Boat Festival, expressing the sincere devotion of each family and praying for a bountiful new harvest and prosperity for the people and livestock. This has become a beautiful aspect of Vietnamese traditional culture.

Bao Thoa

Source: https://baophutho.vn/dac-sac-mam-cung-tet-doan-ngo-213371.htm