Zhongyuan Pudu Offering of Guavas: Farmers' Association Leads the Way in Changing Perceptions

Tomorrow is the Zhongyuan Festival, and many people have been busy since early morning buying offerings at the market, but there are quite a few taboos when worshipping the "good brothers" (wandering spirits). Bananas, plums and pears cannot be placed on the table at the same time, because together they sound like the Taiwanese phrase "jiao li lai" (banana, plum, pear), meaning "invite you in." Guavas and tomatoes have many seeds that are hard to digest and are easily passed out in the stool, so tradition holds that they are unclean for the gods and the good brothers. This year, however, guava prices have collapsed, at less than 10 yuan per jin, and the farmers' associations of Xizhou and Shetou in Changhua, both guava-producing areas, have taken the lead in worshipping with guavas, hoping to break the myth and encourage buying fresh local produce.

Too many seeds and unclean: tomatoes and guavas cannot go on the offering table

Besides guavas, tomatoes and sugar apples, which are unpopular because of their many seeds, some fruits have unlucky-sounding homophones and have also been cast aside.

A fruit vendor surnamed Wang in Xindian said that bananas, plums and Asian pears cannot be placed on the table at the same time, because together in Taiwanese they mean "jiao li lai" (invite you in), and "the good brothers are only on summer vacation, we can't call them in." Some people won't even worship with Asian pears. Some people specifically buy longan and grapes, because both are clusters of small fruits, making it easy for the good brothers to share them.

In recent years, however, this way of thinking has gradually faded. A housewife surnamed Qiu said that at first she also felt it was not good to worship with Asian pears, but after seeing her neighbors do it, it seemed there was no need to be too superstitious, so this year she began putting Asian pears on the table.

Bananas, Asian pears and guavas are all the freshest seasonal produce, yet because of various customs they lose out to imported apples. A vendor surnamed Shen who has sold fruit for decades said he doesn't believe in any of this at all, and consumers don't say anything special when they buy: "Every kind of fruit is grown with hard work!" After all, whatever is offered ends up in your own mouth in the end, so consumers should just choose the fruit they like to eat and not be overly superstitious.