Watermelons

One of the Vietnamese traditions for Tet (Lunar New Year) is to buy beautiful and tasty watermelons. We have Vietnamese-Canadian friends who have a farm and grow several varieties of watermelons to sell for the Tet holiday. They sell for two days of the year and this weekend Simon was invited to help with selling watermelons.

Our friends grow watermelons that have red flesh or yellow flesh, and seeds or seedless. After the melons are picked at the farm, they are brought to the city in the middle of the night. Simon, his friend KaRoi, and a group of men were on hand at 2am to unload the watermelons from the truck to the shop. At 6am people were banging on the shop door to begin purchasing watermelons.

What we didn't know is that watermelons are part of Vietnamese ancestor worship. Watermelons are sold in pairs and displayed with the photos of deceased loved ones. The watermelons are best if they are the same size and colour for the symmetrical display. After New Years Day the watermelons are eaten.

After the first day of selling we met Simon and our friends in China Town for lunch and a bit of sightseeing.