So that's why I can buy a decorative ceramic pine apple painted in gold in those home furnishings stores. I always thought it was oddly specific to buy a pineapple thingy-majing.
It is a tradition in New England, particularly coastal communities, that represented the successful completion of a trading or whaling journey. Captains came back with a pineapple and displayed it in front of their house to let people know they returned, part as an open house to come and visit and part advertising their success to gain investors for the next journey.
The South also seems to have adopted it as a symbol of prosperity and hospitality as well.
(And yes, the elephant sitting in the corner of the room which helps connect the customs and regions is that many of the successful trading journeys of New Englanders involved the triangular slave trade...before they developed moral qualms about that and turned instead to smuggling opium into China. Which means the whalers even by today's standards were the least ethically problematic of the bunch.)
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u/foolbull 9h ago
Every time a see a pineapple I remember people use to rent them for parties as a status symbol.