When you give a timepiece, you’re giving the gift of time–not literally, but metaphorically. It can symbolize that you want this person to be or stay present in your life by being able to keep track of time.

In China, for example, clocks have an unlucky association with death and therefore should be avoided as gifts.

Cut Flowers Particularly Yellow Chrysanthemums/White Flowers Yellow chrysanthemums and white flowers of any kind are used at funerals, so giving white flowers is synonymous with death.

Shoes. No matter how expensive or pretty, never gift someone a pair of shoes as they are considered unlucky, especially as a Christmas present. However, on the other hand, it is believed that if you never give anyone a gift of shoes, you will be doomed to go shoeless in the afterlife.

The four-leaf clovers are said to represent hope, faith, love, and luck. There are many varieties of Clovers as well as ones with a different number of leaves, but the truly lucky ones come from a white clover plant.

For more on the meaning behind housewarming gifts, keep reading the gift guide to find the best gift ever.

1. Bread. Bread is a common traditional housewarming gift.
2. Olive Oil.
3. Honey.
4. Houseplant.
5. Knife.
6. Rice.
7. Housewarming Wine.
8. Wood.

BRING IN BREAD AND SALT: Bread and salt, in Russian Jewish tradition, represent hospitality. They should be the first things to be brought into the home; bread, so the owners never experience hunger, and salt, so their life will be full of flavour.

Both represent hospitality. Pineapple – The pineapple as a symbol of hospitality has its origins in the Caribbean, where the fruit was present at the front of villages and huts. The concept was picked up by Europeans, colonial Americans, and sailors who would bring them home to place a sign of welcoming.

Pineapples symbolize luxury, welcomeness, infertility, virility (paradoxically!!), beauty, hospitality and royalty. This symbolism has been used for many years including on furniture and in religion.

Pineapples Offer Luck The sound of the Chinese word for pineapple is close to the sound of “good luck coming your way,” so the pineapple has become a popular traditional feng shui symbol of wealth, fortune, and prosperity.

It’s the perfect fruit to eat on a hot summer day and it’s naturally the queen of all fruits because it has a crown! Pineapples are also considered an expression of “welcome” throughout the South and symbolizes assets we appreciate in our home – friendship, hospitality and warmth.

A pineapple posted on a door is a simple symbol of welcome. Many businesses and hotels, especially in Hawaii and the U.S. South, display the prickly skinned fruit to demonstrate their desire to serve. Residences also display pineapple-shaped door knockers and plaques to show goodwill to passersby.

People post a certain fruit that corresponds with a different relationship status. Blueberry means you’re single. Cherries mean you’re in a relationship. But, if your love life isn’t quite so straightforward, you have another option: pineapple means it’s complicated.

Since the fruit was so perishable, it became a symbol of luxury, nobility, and wealth throughout Europe. A single pineapple could fetch a fortune. Thus, the host who was able to present freshly cut pineapple to his or her guests was the one with money, power, and connections.

Before selling them for consumption, pineapple merchants rented pineapples to people who couldn’t afford to purchase them. Those who rented would take the pineapple to parties, not to give as a gift to the host, but to carry around and show off their apparent ability to afford such an expensive fruit!

In early Christian art of the 1500s & 1600s, pineapples symbolized prosperity & eternal life. Becoming, then, a huge symbol for the Colonized America; welcome, prosper, worship as you will.

Pineapples are spiky because they are a coalescence of multiple fruits, and the small spikes on the side are the rains of each flower that produced the fruit. When a pineapple grows, it grows much like a raspberry or blackberry, a compound berry.

The sweetest part of a pineapple is its outermost flesh, however, which means you should slice the skin off the sides as thinly as possible and you should leave the eyes (brown spots) or you will lose too much yumminess.

The crown is the very top of the pineapple fruit. Slips are the leafy branches that are attached directly below the fruit. The suckers and shoots both originate from near the bottom of the stem.

The skin of the pineapple plant is not considered poisonous, and while the entire fruit is considered non-toxic, the unripe flesh, thorns and leaves can have toxic effects. This is due to the enzyme bromelain, which is used as a meat tenderizer and is considered very low in toxicity.

Does pineapple have any health risks? Consuming too much pineapples may cause tenderness of the mouth as the fruit is a great meat tenderizer. Eating too much pineapples may cause a range of symptoms such as nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, or heartburn due to its high vitamin C content.

But the exterior of a pineapple changes from a green-gray to yellow as it ripens, so as a general rule, the more yellow a pineapple’s exterior is, the riper the fruit will be. You want a pineapple that is consistently golden-yellow from top to bottom, but not getting into dark orange territory—that’s gone too far.

If your pineapple doesn’t taste sweet, sprinkle the chunks or rounds with sugar. Eat right away, or store covered in the fridge.

Get the pineapple you were hoping for with this dead-simple trick….A Hack for Sweeter, Juicier Pineapple

1. Cut the top crown of the pineapple off.
2. Place the pineapple, cut side down, on a plate.
3. Cover the pineapple with foil or plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge for 2 days—3 if you’re patient.

1. Grill them. This will caramelize the sugars in the fruit, making it sweeter.

Soaking the pineapple in salt water is a common practice in a lot of asian countries, and helps deactivate the enzymes which can cause irritation when you eat fresh pineapple. The enzyme bromelain can cause a fuzzy feeling on the tongue, as it essentially “eats back” at the mouth, and can even cause bleeding.