This symbolism has been used for many years including on furniture and in religion. The fruit has been discovered and rediscovered around the entire globe, traded as a commodity, and planted in pineapple fritters lands. Throughout its many journeys, it has come to symbolize welcome, luxury, and beauty, as well as fertility, war, and royalty.

Although these symbolic meanings seem vastly different from each other, they all have one thing in common: the sweet fruit and beautiful symmetry of the pineapple. As an Amazon Associate I Earn from Qualifying Purchases. But Europe was no place to grow pineapples, and importing them required a long, perilous, and expensive journey. At this time, the pineapple was often used as a table decoration, and people didn’t eat them until they started to go bad. Interestingly, if people could not afford a pineapple, they would often rent one for an evening to show off to neighbors and friends, and that is a way that they could gain favor and save money. Because pineapples were so expensive, if you were lucky enough to have one, it meant that you had some money to spare! The trade routes between the early American world and the Caribbean were very dangerous to traverse.

Being able to get back from the treacherous journey in one piece, and bringing back pineapples with you, meant a real victory. So if you were welcomed to someone’s house with a coveted pineapple, that is a sign that the host had pulled out all the stops and was offering you all they had to give. The pineapple has been a sign of hospitality ever since. If sailors made the perilous journey intact, they would often put an intact pineapple on the porch to signify their safe return. Today, people even hang pineapples outside their door as a sign to guests that they are welcomed in the house. Bromelain  usually helps us digest food, but if you eat pineapple on an empty stomach, bromelain becomes an anti-inflammatory and blood thinner, which can help a fetus attach to the uterine wall.