Special offerings for the Duanwu Festival

In recent years, in Phu Tho province, the Doan Ngo Festival offering tray has been full of fresh fruits, sticky rice, purple sticky rice wine, yellow sticky rice... with many eye-catching designs and forms, chosen by many consumers.

Doan Ngo Festival (insect killing festival) is one of the special Tet holidays according to Vietnamese folk beliefs, held at the exact hour of Ngo - noon on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month every year. In 2024, this Tet holiday falls on Monday, June 9th of the solar calendar.

On this day, every family prepares an offering tray for their ancestors including fruits such as lychee, plum, betel, sticky rice wine, ash cake, various types of sweet soup... with the wish to drive away all diseases, bring health, peace and luck to the homeowner. People believe that this is the time when the fruits on the trees and the leaves on the branches begin to bloom and bear fruit, they perform the ancestral worship ritual with the wish for a bountiful harvest. After the Doan Ngo Festival, there is a custom of killing insects, people eat sour and astringent foods to kill insects and drive away all diseases.

In recent years, the service of making offerings for the Duan Ngo Festival has been popular with many people in the province.

On this day, all fruit and offering shops sell full, beautiful offering trays, priced from 180,000 VND - 700,000 VND. Having been in the business for 5 years, Ms. Lo Thuy Trang - owner of a facility making offering trays for the Doan Ngo Festival in Viet Tri City, Phu Tho said that every year on May 5, she will make about 100 "insect killing" offering trays, selling them for 186,000 VND with the meaning of prosperity, including: 3 fresh lotus flowers, 3 betel leaves, 3 ash cakes, 5 xu xe cakes, plums, lychees, purple sticky rice wine and yellow sticky rice.

“The highlight of the offering tray is lychee and plum, symbolizing the sweetness and hardships that occur in life. White lotus represents the nobility, purity, and dignity of the homeowner when offering offerings to ancestors. Banh xu xe is a delicious dish that doubles happiness. With the criteria of personally selecting fresh foods, ensuring food safety and hygiene, personally preparing with sincerity so that customers can have a complete offering tray” - Ms. Trang said.

Not only the traditional market, but also the online markets are bustling at this time. With 3 years of experience in making offerings, Nguyen Thi Xuan Quynh, Lam Thao district said: On this occasion, her family accepts online orders for offerings ranging from 250,000 - 700,000 VND to serve customers who want to buy them for the Doan Ngo Festival.

The highest set costs 700,000 VND and includes: Fruits (lychees, peaches, plums, rambutans), betel and areca nuts, sticky rice, yellow sticky rice wine, purple sticky rice, rustic cakes (pig skin cake, ash cake, rom cake), rustic flowers (lotus, lily), money bag buns...

Ms. Quynh added: “Sets priced from 250,000 - 400,000 VND will be more popular because they are suitable for many families' budgets. We have been accepting orders for Doan Ngo Tet sets since the 1st of the 5th lunar month and gradually delivering orders to customers from the afternoon of the 4th and morning of the 5th of the 5th lunar month. The closer to Tet, the more scarce they are. Customers who order late, even though the price is high, we do not dare to accept more for fear of running out of orders.”

Ms. Le Thi Huyen Anh in Viet Tri City said that for many years, when the Doan Ngo Festival comes, she has gone to the market early in the morning to buy offerings, but this year, introduced by a friend, she ordered a tray of offerings a week ago for 300,000 VND, including: Lychee, plum, yellow sticky rice wine, purple sticky rice and a tray of country flowers (lotus, areca flowers), delivered on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month. What I like about this tray of offerings is the elaborate and skillful decoration. The rustic dishes imbued with Vietnamese culture when arranged with betel and areca, lotus flowers, and contained in a traditional bamboo tray create a harmonious and rustic beauty when offered to the ancestral altar.

A beautifully decorated tray of offerings to ancestors on the occasion of the Duanwu Festival shows the sincerity of each family, praying for a new good harvest and prosperity, which has become a beautiful feature in the traditional culture of the Vietnamese people.

Bao Thoa

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