If you have been searching for gifts symbolic of love for someone, you might have come across necklaces stringed with red peas.
Depending on where you are, these might be called red beans, red pearls, or red beads, etc.
Red peas as gifts of love are most often designed in a form of necklace so that the receiver can wear them wherever he or she goes.
It should be noted that these days, necklaces made with red beads or pearls are commonly sold as alternatives to red peas.
While there are various gift items that are meant to convey love in Chinese culture, there is a story behind the red peas that links it to undying love.
The legend was that a woman by the name of hong dou (红豆), which literally translates to red pea, from ZheJiang (浙江) who fell madly in love and married the love of her life. However to make a living to feed the family, her husband left home for WuYi mountain (武夷山) one day to grow valuable mushrooms such as lingzhi. And didn’t return home for an extended period of time.
Fearing that he might have died due to the harsh weather or having been attacked by dangerous predators, she cried for days inside her residence. The villagers who walks past the place heard her crying for days.
One day crying stopped and concerned neighbors to check on hong dou. She was nowhere to be seen. And right there on the spot where people believed she was crying at was a tree flushed with red peas.
When her husband finally returned home, he believed that his wife has turned into the red pea tree as he had never seen it before in the premises.
As the story spread, red peas became a symbols of love that is given to a loved on so that he or she knows how much the giver means to them. And that they should treasure every moment which they can spend together before time eventually runs out.
