Posted February 21, 200520 yr Dear Master Cecil LeeWhat is themeaning of the pumpkin fruit. Recently, when visiting to a friend house. Notice, they display a pumpkinat theancestor table and also somewhereat their dining area.Is it a fruit of wealth or new year season fruit. Alot of fish pictures and statuatte of the fish hanging ateverywall of their house and wind chimes at the window. Should I give advise to them or not.Thank youWith warmest regardsSophia Chia
Posted February 21, 200520 yr Staff Dear Sophia,I am not to clear whether pumpkin (American slang) is similar to the local use of the term melon.But, if what your friend had displayed, locally in Singapore we call this "pumpkin" melon instead. Some call it golden melon because of it's colour.Usually, much like the mandarin oranges or "kum"; this is the phonetic sound like "Gold" for the Cantonese dialect group. Thus, exchanging a pair of mandarin oranges is like exchanging gold for the Cantonese.Thus, an orange melon also has the look of "gold" and in my opinion, perhaps, more readily associated with the Cantonese. And during the new year period, this melon or pumpkin? has been marketed to sell on this merit. Perhaps, this is why, it is on your friend's altar!But again, no Cantonese (who understands) the phonetic sound of the other type of melon i.e. water melon will ever place it at an altar or purchase it for their new home move-in or collection of key ritual!Since xi qua or water melon sounds like "death" to the Cantonese. And never give a water melon to the Cantonese!Since what you had mentioned is the golden kind, as mentioned, color looks good = to gold... thus seems acceptable.Fish pictures represents the saying " Every year got fish " or food on the table. In addition, the mandarin word for fish "yu" stands for abundance and affluence. Symbolic of good harvests etc...Of course, often the most common pictures are of plump fishes especially those of the graceful carp (koi) etc... No one displays pictures of fish (sharks)! If so, *JOKE* most likely the people in the home perhaps are erh.. Loan-Sharks? or most likely business people. In modern times, could also be associated with lawyers! Warmest Regards,Cecil Quote On 2/21/2005 1:03:13 AM, Anonymous wrote:Dear Master Cecil LeeWhat is themeaning ofthe pumpkin fruit. Recently,when visiting to a friendhouse. Notice, they display apumpkinattheancestor table andalso somewhereat theirdining area.Is it afruit of wealth or new yearseason fruit. Alot of fishpictures and statuatte of thefish hangingateverywall oftheir house and wind chimes atthe window. Should I giveadvise to them or not.Thank youWith warmest regardsSophia Chia
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