In Vietnam, Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as Children’s Festival, bringing families together for a fun nighteating mooncakes and exotic fruits like pomelo, followed by parades lit by lanterns.
Today in Saigon’s District 11, you can still find a neighbourhood that makes traditional lanterns. Pham DucThang’s family in PhuBinh village is among a handful of families clinging to the traditional craft.
As the festival is around the corner, all the family are busy with their work, with hands full of glass paper, glues and bamboo sticks.
A traditional lantern is made with simple materials such as bamboo stick, see-through paper and vivid colour paintings. It can be in the shape of a chicken, a ship or a star.
It takes a couple of hours to make a lantern but it can only be sold up to 1.7 dollars. The cheap price makes many craftsmen quit the job or do other jobs at the same time to earn a living.
In recent years, traditional lanterns have become more popular with youngsters, traders and people buying traditional toys for their kids.
No matter how technologically advanced life becomes, the sparkling traditional lanterns still have value, value that needs to be preserved for generations.-VNA