Why shouldn’t you combine two bunches of bananas to burn incense?

From ancient times until now, bananas have always been considered an indispensable ingredient on the five-fruit tray. In many families, bananas play an important role in holidays and full moon weeks. A bunch of bananas is often placed in the center of the offering tray and hugs other fruits.

The image of a bunch of bananas evokes the image of the hands of Buddha, gods, and ancestors protecting and protecting the homeowner.

Why shouldn’t you combine two bunches of bananas to burn incense?

Because bananas have a special role in the fruit tray, sometimes because they cannot buy a bunch of bananas that are as big and curvy as they want, some people buy two bunches and then use nails or wire to put them together so that they are big enough on the sprouts. Carry and hug other fruits. Meanwhile, many others believe that doing so is not advisable.

Why shouldn’t you combine two bunches of bananas to burn incense? That’s because according to the Eastern concept of yin and yang, even numbers belong to yin, odd numbers belong to yang, and are numbers that symbolize movement and development. In the worship ceremony, offerings are prepared in odd numbers, such as the number of fruits displayed (a five-fruit tray with 5 types of fruit, or if offering one type, it is usually displayed 3 – 5 – 7 – 9… . fruits), the number of flowers placed on the altar, the number of incense sticks burned…

Combining two bunches of bananas into one will create an even number, which means creating a negative number, which is not consistent with the above concept.

In terms of aesthetics, combining two bunches of bananas into one can make the offering tray more majestic, but it will lack naturalness and solidity, easily leading to falling or damaging other fruits when worshiping, because of the structure of the banana bunch. When put together, it is very difficult to stand.

For Eastern people, dropping offerings is taboo; Using nails or metal wires to connect fruit is also considered taboo in feng shui (metal overcomes wood). That is also the reason why you should not combine two bunches of bananas to burn incense.

However, this is just an opinion of some people and is not related to scientific bases. So in reality, there are people who avoid combining two bunches of bananas to smell incense, others still do it if they don’t have a big enough bunch of bananas. Pairing two bunches of bananas on a five-fruit tray requires dexterity, ensuring cohesion and harmony with other fruits, avoiding misalignment and falling.

Why are incense-burning bananas with their beards still more expensive?

Not every bunch of bananas is chosen to be placed on the altar to worship ancestors. Large, beautiful and green bunches of bananas will always be given top priority. A bunch of bananas with an odd number of fruits will be chosen by most people for worship.

The more fruits in the bunch and the odd number of fruits, the more expensive they will be because they symbolize prosperity, togetherness and completeness. In particular, a bunch of bananas to be considered beautiful must still have the beard at the navel of the fruit.  

Folklore believes that bunches of bananas with large, round fruits with intact antennae symbolize fertility, buds, prosperity, and bring luck and prosperity to the homeowner. Therefore, many people are willing to spend a higher amount of money to buy bunches of bananas that meet this criterion and place them on the altar.

People often have the habit of burning incense and must abstain from even numbers. 3 sticks of incense are to worship Heaven, Earth, and Humanity, 5 sticks are to worship the 5 human virtues of humanity, ceremony, righteousness, wisdom, and faith. Odd numbers symbolize fertility, so when lighting incense, arranging flowers or displaying fruit, people often choose odd numbers.

How to choose bananas for incense

Bananas used for burning incense should not be fully ripe because then the fruit will easily fall off. If you want to display a tray of five fruits, you must choose green bananas, old bananas, big, green, shiny and not young, angular bananas. Only green bananas can support other fruits, preventing the banana from breaking and the apples, oranges… above falling down.

Avoid choosing bananas with dark scars or missing fruit. If the process of cutting the bunch of bananas and separating the bunch causes scarring and loss of fruit, you should not burn incense with that bunch of bananas anymore because it looks less aesthetic and lacks the solemnity and dignity required for worship.

People also often avoid bunches of bananas that are crooked and unbalanced because such bunches of bananas are neither beautiful nor have good feng shui meanings. As mentioned above, most people also do not like bunches with an even number of berries and missing whiskers, thinking that losing the whiskers means losing fortune. 

Northern people often choose banana peppers to burn incense instead of western bananas because the banana fruit is long and curved, holding many other fruits. Some localities like Hue choose porcelain bananas, royal bananas, and honey bananas to burn incense because these are delicious bananas that were presented to the king in the past.

Before putting them on the altar, you need to wash and dry the bananas with clean paper towels, avoiding water stagnation in the stems, which will quickly spoil and rot.