HANOI, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- On Friday, one day ahead the Lunar New Year's Eve, local postman Nguyen Van Quang screened through the traditional flower market of Hang Luoc in Hanoi's Old Quarters, to seek peach blossoms for Tet.
"Tet (Lunar New Year Festival, the biggest festive event in a year) will be no longer Tet if there are no peach blossoms in homes of people in the North," the middle-aged man said, noting that his extended family has always bought peach blossoms for Tet for years.
After walking around the market dominated by the pink color several times, Quang eventually spent 1 million Vietnamese dong (42.4 U.S. dollars) buying a big branch of crimson peach blossoms full of twigs, flowers and buds, and 150,000 Vietnamese dong (6.4 U.S. dollars) purchasing a much smaller branch of pinkish peach blossoms.
"We will place the big branch in the living room for us and our visitors to enjoy during Tet, and the smaller one on the altar for our ancestors," he said, adding that the glamorous big branch was from a tree grown in Nhat Tan Ward, Tay Ho District, Hanoi.
According to historical books, villagers of Nhat Tan started growing peach blossom trees in the 7th century. With over 100 hectares of peach blossom trees currently, Nhat Tan is still the most famous peach blossom tree-growing area in Vietnam.
About a decade ago, people in Buon Ho Town in the central highlands province of Dak Lak began to grow peach blossom trees with varieties taken from Nhat Tan in Hanoi. Now, a village in the town specializes in growing Nhat Tan peach blossom trees, and it is also called the Nhat Tan peach blossom village.
According to Vietnamese culture experts, local people believe that the crimson color of peach blossoms symbolizes brightness and warmth that brings health, success and happiness to them in the new year.
Therefore, generations of people keep on growing or buying peach blossoms to celebrate Tet. Well-off people can spend millions, even dozens of millions of Vietnamese dong on buying a whole peach blossoms tree full of roots to display in their big houses, while less wealthy ones opt for branches of the trees.
A big peach blossoms tree whose trunk and branches are shaped by growers into special figures like a flying dragon can cost hundreds of millions of Vietnamese dong.
Such eye-popping peach blossoms trees can be bought right at gardens in Hanoi's Nhat Tan Ward or along nearby roads such as Lac Long Quan Street, Au Co Street and Nghi Tam Street.
"This year, big peach blossoms trees are not selling well because the economic situation is gloomy. Over the past few days, the best-selling item is branches at prices ranging from 100,000 Vietnamese dong (4.2 U.S. dollars) to 1.5 million Vietnamese dong (63.6 U.S. dollars)," a seller named Dinh Ngoc Ha told Xinhua on Thursday, while displaying her peach blossoms trees and branches on the sideline of Lac Long Quan Street in Tay Ho District.
She said in addition to peach blossoms grown in gardens in Hanoi, trees grown on hills and mountains in such northern provinces as Son La, Lai Chau and Hoa Binh are also luring buyers, mainly because they look more natural.
While peach blossoms are popular with people in the North, their peers in the South often opt for yellow apricot blossoms for Tet.
Vietnamese people believe that the yellow apricot tree has vigorous, strong and pure vitality, symbolizing a gentleman with tenaciousness, loyalty and purity. The tree seems withered in summer, tremulous in winter, but brilliant in spring with shining yellow flowers and green leaves.
An Nhon Town in Binh Dinh province is considered the biggest hub of yellow apricot blossoms in the central region. The town currently has nearly 1,500 households growing some 1.5 million yellow apricot blossoms trees in an area of 145 hectares.
The yellow apricot village of Phuoc Dinh in Binh Hoa Phuoc Commune, Long Ho District, the southern province of Vinh Long is regarded as the biggest hub of the tree in the Mekong Delta.
"Our village currently has over 30,000 yellow apricot blossom trees and some 2,500 ornamental trees of other kinds," Le Van Ty, director of the Phuoc Dinh Yellow Apricot Cooperative, told Xinhua in mid-January, adding that villagers started growing the trees en masse in 2009.
These days in the yellow apricot village of Binh Loi in Binh Chanh District, Ho Chi Minh City, the city's biggest hub of the tree, many people are choosing trees that cost 2 million Vietnamese dong (84.7 U.S. dollars) or more.
In recent years, thanks to improved living standards and more convenient transport, more and more people in the North have opted for yellow apricot blossoms, and their peers in the South choose peach blossoms for Tet.
Besides, many Vietnamese people have bought some other kinds of flowers and ornamental trees for Tet, including orchids, gladiolus, dahlia and kumquat. ■
