It’s peak summertime and we cannot wait to get the celebrations started for Mango Day on July 22. The yellow fruit is world-famous for its sweet and juicy flavors.
Mango is primarily a summer fruit, and it comes in all shapes and sizes, and with each variety, there’s a different way to enjoy the taste.
Many people in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh eat the fruit whole, without cutting it up. They squeeze a mango thoroughly, turning its insides into a soft mushy pulp, and then make a hole in the skin to suck the pulp out. South Asia also happens to produce half the world’s mango supply. China is the second-largest mango producer.
According to several sources, the mango was first cultivated more than 4,000 years ago in India. Mango is a stone fruit that grows on a tropical tree called the Mangifera indica. The tree can grow up to 150 feet tall and can have an extremely long life span. When it is young, the mango tree has orange-red leaves that turn dark red to a luscious green over time.
Mangos, growing from the tree’s flowers, can take four to five months to fully ripen and, before this, they are green and hard.
There are more than 500 varieties in the world, and many of these were influenced and developed by political, religious, and social incidents.
As mentioned above, mango was first grown in India and it has a special significance for this country. The Buddha was depicted sitting near a huge mango tree and the Mughal emperor, Babur, decided to conquer India after he tasted a particularly delicious mango.
It was the Mughal empire that went on to create and cultivate the many famous mango varieties like ‘chaunsa,’ ‘Anwar Ratol,’ and ‘Kesar’ mangoes. The mangoes were so beloved to the empire that one of the emperors, Shah Jahan Zafar, had his son punished after learning that he had reserved and eaten all the mangoes in the palace.
As time went by, mangoes traveled from India to other countries of the world. Because it has a big seed, mangoes had to be transported by humans, unlike other fruits like cherries, which could easily be transported by birds and animals.
The mango fruit was brought to Portugal and Britain by traders and colonizers. In South Asia, mangoes are so valued that they are considered the national fruit of Pakistan and India, and the national tree of Bangladesh. A basket of mangoes is also considered a gesture of friendship in the region.
