W.Minh Tuan

According to many researchers, the custom of chewing betel and areca nuts in Vietnam probably started during the period of the Hung Kings.

Legend has it that around the reign of the fourth Hung King, (some documents say that during the reign of the 6th Hung King), there was a Quan Lang mandarin (Quan Lang mandarin is the name of King Hung’s sons) who gave birth to two sons. They look exactly alike, maybe they’re twins.

Growing up, the older brother got married, and the younger brother still lived with the older brother and his wife.

One day, the wife mistook her husband’s younger brother for her husband, so she hugged him by mistake.

The younger brother was ashamed, so he left home, came to a stream bank, fell down dead tired, and turned into a tall, upright tree, growing on the stream bank.

That is an areca tree.

The older brother came home and couldn’t find him. He felt sorry for him and immediately went looking for him. When he reached the stream bank where there was a tall areca tree, he also fell down exhausted and died, turning into a stone slab hugging the tree.

The wife also went looking for her husband, and for her brother-in-law, and came to a place on the bank of a stream with a tall tree, and that stone slab, the wife also died, turning into a vine, with leaves curling around embracing the stone slab and the tall tree. That is the betel tree.

The people of the area felt sorry for those three people who lived in harmony, were faithful, and loved each other, so they built a shrine to worship 3 of them.

King Hung Vuong the 4th went to that area to patrol, heard the story of the three people, and was also moved. The king ordered to take fruit from tall trees and leaves from vines to be chewed and found to be fragrant. People chewing these fruit and leave then spat on a stone and found it turning into red color like blood.

King Hung ordered the stone to be burned into lime, chewed with the fruit and leaves, and saw red lips and rosy cheeks.

King Hung thought it was a precious thing, so he ordered people to plant it widely throughout the country, and use it to chew during Tet holidays, weddings, or when noble guests come to people’s house, or on festivals.

The custom of chewing betel and areca from then on shows the faithful love between husband and wife, and the intimate and loving relationships between family, brothers, friends, relatives, and neighbors.

Strangely enough, to this day, more than 4,000 years since the reign of the 4th King Hung Vuong, the custom of chewing betel on holidays, weddings, receiving guests, festivals, etc. is still maintained in Vietnam, showing the simple and noble soul of Vietnamese people, respect for the love between husband and wife, family, friends, and guests that is still maintained until now.

Billionaire Bill Gate, the founder of the famous American Microsoft Company, in year 2005, when visiting Vietnam, was invited to visit Quan ho village in Bac Ninh, north of Hanoi, and was invited to eat betel and areca nuts.

No one instructed him to spit out the residue when chewing betel, so when Mr. Bill Gate was invited to eat betel, he chewed a few times in his mouth and then swallowed it.

Luckily, there were no problems after that.

Can every Vietnamese person today, when holding a piece of betel to their mouth, or simply when seeing a tray of five fruits with betel and areca on display during Tet, see the precious culture of our Vietnamese people? value human love above all material things, power, fighting, strife, money, fame, in this world?

We understand that money and fame are precious things, something that many people strive to achieve.

But living indifferently, arguing, fighting, and denigrating to get money and fame and power by any cost is something strange to our Vietnamese betel and areca culture from ancient times.

In addition, this betel and areca legend also says that when the king’s children are born, some are given the title of princes and will succeed the king, but there are also some who are just mandarins and are richer than the normal people, but lives among the common people, has no relationship with his father King anymore.

Because in this betel and areca story, King Hung Vuong 4th did not know anything about his son, a mandarin, who gave birth to two twins, one of whom was married, and then all three sons and daughter-in-law died, turned into betel trees, areca trees, and limestone slabs, and people built temples to worship them.

Only when King Hung Vuong 4^th went on a patrol tour to that area did King Hung Vuong learn that his three grandchildren had died and a temple for them was built.

Thus we see another popular beauty of the Hung Kings during the Hung King period.

The Hung Kings’ children did not live luxuriously in isolated palaces, but lived among the common people like ordinary people, and were no longer allowed to live in luxury, enjoy special treatment from the King’s nobles.////