Trop picks: Longan
Deepavali or the Indian festival of lights has traditionally been celebrated by setting off fireworks. It is said that the attendant light and noise scares away evil spirits and ensures prosperity in the new year.
Not so long ago, Chinese New Year was celebrated similarly, on mainland China at least. After all, the Chinese invented fireworks.
Could it be that some Indian merchant in Quanzhou in the twelfth century observed the Chinese custom and brought it back to India for Deepavali?
Our friends at Moss and Rose were inspired by the syncretic nature of culture to make the above Deepavali gift-wrapping arrangement.
When the Arab and Indian merchants were loading their ships in Quanzhou, many of the containers were filled with exotic fruit like litchis and their less glamorous cousins, longans (Dimocarpus longan).
In China, the longan tree is sometimes known as the "litchi's slave," since it matures in August, later than the litchi, following the litchi as a slave follows his master.
The origins of the longan--long yan or dragon's eye in Chinese, and mata kucing or cat's eye in Malay--are obscure. Some believe it originated in India, others in Indochina, and still others in southern China, growing no further north than Fuzhou in Fujian (also the location of Quanzhou).
As early as 200 B.C., the Chinese were wise to the wonders of this fruit. King Zhao Tuo of Nan Yue, encompassing parts of modern-day Guangdong and Vietnam, presented longans to the first Han emperor, Gao Zi. Later, longans and litchis were sent by fast horse from Guangdong to the great Khan of the Huns. And Emperor Cao Pi of the Wei dynasty (220-226 C.E.) ordered that longans be presented to him as annual tribute.
The longan has a number of medicinal applications, is a rich source of Vitamin C, and as a member of the Sapindaceae or soap nut family, its nuts were once used to wash hair in China. Soap nuts are also an ancient method of washing hair in parts of India, a tradition now trotted out once a year on--you guessed it--Deepavali morning.
Sources:
Frederick J. Simoons, Food in China: A Cultural and Historical History, 1990.