Holiday Ayo - Do you often see Mandarin Oranges in almost every Chinese New Year celebration? Generally, this orange will be served in every Confucian home.

This fruit is considered a symbol of good luck by the Chinese community, so it is often served during Chinese New Year celebrations.

Not just a dish, this orange has many philosophies lo cited from IDN Times :

1. Symbol of prosperity and wealth

In Chinese, sometimes there are words with different characters, but the pronunciation is the same. Examples include jú zi (橘子) which means 'orange' and jīn zi (金子) which means 'gold'.

The mention of the same, then made the Chinese people believe that oranges can bring prosperity, like gold. In fact, in My Recipes it is explained that citrus fruits that are present at Chinese New Year are believed to bring wealth in life.

2. A form of respect

Source : pingpoint.co.id

The Chinese prefer even numbers over odd. The reason is, they believe that odd numbers bring bad luck and should be avoided, including when determining the amount of money in angpau and the number of oranges to give to other people.

Even so, this does not apply to the number 4. This is because the number 4 has a designation (四; sì) that sounds similar to 死 (sĭ). In Mandarin the expression means 'to die'.

3. Fertility and freshness

This orange symbolizes freshness and fertility according to Chinese beliefs. Therefore, not infrequently this fruit is always brought when visiting the newlyweds' house. The oranges that are brought are generally in two or even numbers and still have stems and some leaves.

Apart from being a symbol of fertility, mandarin orange with leaves can also be used as a substitute for trees for dining table decorations. You can arrange them on a tray with various candies.

4. Symbol of good luck

In the 3rd or 4th century BC, the yin and yang principle emerged. This principle states that everything exists as opposites and cannot be separated. This concept later became the basis of the philosophy of mandarin oranges in Chinese culture.

It's not just bright colors, like red and orange, that are considered lucky, but the whole look too. The circular shape of a mandarin orange looks like the sun tài yáng (太阳). Well, in Chinese culture itself the sun is closely related to positive luck and abundant wealth, to fertility, reports Fair Price.