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).
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.
Read more at sbs.com.au