For many Vietnamese who grew up in Vietnam and then immigrated to Australia, mai flowers with their bright yellow colour when blooming are a must during Tet or Lunar New Year celebrations.
The mai flower with its slender stem and soft and fragile flowers has been favoured for Tet in Vietnam for thousands of years.
Even when the petals fall off, the flower is still attractive. It is considered even luckier than the four, so-called ‘noble’ flowers of ochna integerrima, orchid, chrysanthemum, and phyllostachys (mai, lan, cúc, trúc).
Mai blooms remind migrants of Vietnam
Vietnamese Australian, Chanh To, says in his home city of Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City, every family observing Tet would have at least one mai branch on display in a central location in their houses.
“Just as in traditional Vietnamese culture, my family and my parents always bring home a mai branch every Tet. When spring comes, there are peach blossoms in the North, and in the South, there are mai flowers,” Mr Chanh said.
Thanh Tan, a native of Tay Ninh now living in Brisbane, said that seeing mai flowers instantly reminds people of the excitement of Tet.
Mai flowers with their bright yellow colour when blooming are a must during Tet or Lunar New Year celebrations. Source: Getty / FabVietnam_Photography/Getty Images/iStockphoto
“The bright yellow colour of mai flowers is the colour of family reunions, days of meeting relatives and friends and having fun.
“Peach blossom and mai flower are two things that I think that anyone who has nostalgia for Vietnamese New Year will never forget. But because I grew up in the South, the impression left by mai flowers is far more profound and symbolises wealth and power.”
Love having ‘old friends’ in the garden
“No longer bound by bread and butter or fame. Mai (tree) is an old friend, Crane (bird) is a relative,” poet Nguyen Du once randomly wrote in two lines of poetry in Chữ Nôm (Southern characters) referring to the mai tree’s significance in the lives of Vietnamese people in early times.
Each ethnic group has a few species of plants associated with their traditional culture which have auspicious meanings. Vietnamese people are no exception.
According to Mr Tan and Mr Chanh, many Vietnamese migrants to Australia eventually wanted to grow a few familiar species of plants and flowers in their gardens.
The bright yellow colour of mai flowers is the colour of family reunions, days of meeting relatives and friends and having fun. Source: Supplied
For Mr Tan, growing mai in Australia is akin to planting a reminder of his homeland.
“I have an emotional reaction whenever I see mai flowers,” he said.
“When I came to visit friends at Tet, I saw mai trees, (and they) reminded me of very beautiful memories of my childhood. So, we also planted two or three mai trees. I also tried to learn the techniques to make them flower in the Tet season.”
Vietnamese Australian Chanh To and his Mai tree Source: Supplied
“I remember every time someone was promoted, they would have either gold or silver mai images embroidered on their collars with gold representing the level of lieutenant and silver the rank of colonel,” he said.
Mr Chanh owns and runs a plant nursery in Brisbane Source: Supplied
“Vietnamese people like to maintain their traditional culture and we can't buy mai at regular garden centres,” he said.
The huge effort planting and growing mai for Tet
At a typical Tet market, it is not unusual to see chrysanthemums, marigolds, cockscomb (celosia), both as cut flowers and whole plants in pots, Mr Chanh says.
“…and a lot of peach blossoms, mai flowers... made of plastic cloth, sold in bags, for people to buy and attach to tree branches,” he said.
Tet in the Southern Hemisphere falls in the second half of the summer months. While it may be the same lunar month, the climate is very different from the spring of the tropical homeland, Mr Chanh said.
Thanh Tan, a native of Tay Ninh now living in Brisbane, said that seeing mai flowers instantly reminds people of the excitement of Tet. Source: Supplied
In fact, having a mai tree in a home garden in Australia requires meticulous and painstaking care and cultivation.
Planting mai then watering, fertilising, and pruning it does not guarantee the growers have flowers in time for Tet, Mr Tan said.
“The weather in Brisbane is sometimes hot, sometimes too cold, so it's difficult for me to make sure the tree blooms on Tet days,” he said.
“Once the tree was in bloom, sometimes I only got half of what I wanted, but other times when it is all flowers and no leaves, it’s very beautiful and how it’s supposed to be.”
Seeing Mai flowers is seeing Tet. Source: Supplied
“One month before spring, remove all leaves until only branches remain. Entering spring, around the beginning of October or the end of September, the flowers will bloom,” he said.
“January 2023 is the Lunar New Year so at the end of December, leaves should also be picked again, this time the flowers will not be as abundant as the previous time, but there will also be flowers for us to enjoy Tet.”
Mr Chanh happily ‘shows off’ his successfully grafted mai species of Cuc Mai and white mai grafting.
Seeing mai flowers is seeing Tet. In areas of Queensland and the Northern Territory, where the climate is similar to South Vietnam, there are Vietnamese Australians like Mr Tan, Mr Chanh and many others, busily attending to plants to ensure Vietnamese yellow mai blooms in time for Lunar New Year 2023.
