During the “Moon-watching Festival”, many shops on Hang Ma Street still have a small corner displaying red and yellow lanterns. Upon further investigation, we learned that most of these lanterns were made by Mr. Do Van Ky - a son of the famous Ha Thai lacquer craft village (Duyen Thai, Thuong Tin).
While the people of Ha Thai were busy making paintings, bowls, plates... in the house in the small alley where the sound of chickens crowed at noon, Mr. Ky and his family were busy whittling bamboo strips and pasting cellophane. The full moon of August had not yet arrived, but his house seemed to have welcomed the Mid-Autumn Festival early, with every corner brightly colored with lanterns.
“I have been making lanterns for more than 40 years, the craft was passed down from my father,” Mr. Ky said while bending bamboo strips. The man with gray hair said that since he was 13, he started helping his father make lanterns, from whittling bamboo strips, to applying glue...
Mr. Ky officially started his career at the age of 15. “Since then, I have been making lamps every year, depending on my health, I can make more or less,” he confided.
To make lanterns for the Mid-Autumn Festival, Mr. Ky and his family have been busy since the sixth lunar month. The two types of trees used to make lanterns are bamboo (lamp frame) and jute (lamp handle). Mr. Ky said: "In the past, there was no bamboo, so we had to use bamboo growing around the village, split into thin tubes to get the core to make them." According to Mr. Ky, bamboo is hard and very difficult to make. Even the bamboo had to be selected by his skilled eyes to ensure it was the right size, not easily broken or eaten by termites.
As for jute, he imported it from Thai Binh every year. But now, he grows it himself on the edge of the village to get the desired batch of plants. Jute is planted around the first lunar month and is harvested when the plants are big and hard enough to be nailed without breaking, and also when children can hold and play with them without damaging them. In addition, when bringing the jute home, Mr. Ky has to peel the bark and dry the plants in the sun for about 5 days to increase their durability.
Talking to Mr. Ky, I learned that in the past, there were about a dozen people in the village who made lanterns. However, currently, only Mr. Ky's family still keeps the profession. "I have been doing this job since I was a child, and now I am used to it. When it's the season, I miss it a lot," Mr. Ky confided. Mr. Ky's nostalgia and familiarity are very clear, just look at the way he skillfully makes lanterns.
The bamboo brought back must be soaked, split, and dried in the sun to whiten the bamboo and achieve flexibility. After that, it must be whittled before it can be bent. In the process of making lanterns, the part of making lantern flowers requires the most meticulousness and skill. Because if the hand force is too strong, the bamboo will break immediately. Mr. Ky revealed to me that to avoid the bamboo from breaking too much, in addition to hand force, the bamboo must be bent twice. Once when it is still fresh, and once when it is finished whittling.
For the second time, Mr. Ky used a bending table that he happily said he made himself. “Before, I didn’t have this table, so I had to bend the bamboo strips with butter tubes. My hands and feet were tired from bending and holding the butter tubes.” To create the flower lamp frame, Mr. Ky had to bend the bamboo strips to have 6 petals to insert into the flower base made from soft, flexible Bodhi wood. Mr. Ky’s hands flexibly bent the bamboo strips, his eyes carefully observed, each petal was rounded and soft, like a flower about to bloom, to be just right.
With the flower lantern frame, the craftsman will cover it with cellophane. The petals include 2 yellow, 2 red, 1 blue and 1 purple. Mr. Ky said that cellophane usually comes in both dark blue and green, but only dark blue is the most beautiful. The cellophane is cut according to the mold, glued and gently rubbed onto the flower frame that has been coated with glue. After the glue dries for about 5 minutes, it is time to decorate the lantern.
The drawings on the lanterns with white glue are simple, familiar images of life such as flowers, rice flowers... The drawing process, Mr. Ky taught to Ms. Hien - a neighbor girl who is very interested in making lanterns.
The sun slanted into the porch, I watched Ms. Hien draw flowers on cellophane while listening to Mr. Ky tell stories. In the past, not all children had lanterns to play with during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Every time I saw a sparkling lantern in front, followed by countless children calling out to each other, in a long line carrying lanterns.
The lantern can be rotated thanks to a wheel, one side of which touches the base of the lantern, the other side rolls on the ground. The contact points are fixed with iron nails. In the middle of the lantern is a small iron ring to hold a candle. When the lantern is pushed, the colorful petals will rotate evenly, reflecting red, yellow, etc. light from the candle inside the lantern onto the road.
While pushing the lantern for me to see, Mr. Ky said that many times, he was able to bring the lantern to Thang Long Imperial Citadel to introduce it to children. "Seeing the children eagerly asking about the name of the lantern and how to play with it, I was very happy," Mr. Ky happily expressed.
Even though we are “used to electric lights and glass doors”, the sparkling, brilliant light from traditional lanterns during the Reunion Festival still makes many people like Mr. Ky excited every time they remember it. The colors of the traditional “light blue lanterns with purple lanterns, blue lanterns with white lanterns” evoke the bustling atmosphere of the lantern procession, the lion procession, the fruit trays next to the fragrant moon cakes and baked cakes.
Until now, every Mid-Autumn Festival, thousands of beautiful lanterns made by Mr. Ky and his family not only go to Hang Ma, but also to Nghe An, Ho Chi Minh City... The spinning lanterns on the full moon night still travel back and forth across the country, perhaps because of that, "making spinning lanterns is very painful for the hands and feet", but Mr. Ky still regularly plants jute and splits bamboo every year so that this traditional toy can be carried everywhere.
