Profession passed down by grandparents, lasting through descendants
Visiting Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thanh's family in Thanh Loc commune (An Giang), everyone is working busily, tirelessly. The bustling atmosphere of bamboo splitting mixed with laughter, surrounded by the scene of beautiful traditional Mid-Autumn lanterns hanging all over the house. Ms. Dinh Thi Thuy An - Mrs. Thanh's eldest daughter - quickly packed and delivered goods to customers to be on time for the approaching Mid-Autumn Festival.
In the small house, Ms. Thanh and her husband, Mr. Dinh Van Chien, are splitting each bamboo strip. Ms. Thanh, while chatting, quickly continued to do the stages to keep up with the number of lanterns delivered to customers.
Ms. Thanh recounted that this craft has been made for a long time by her ancestors passed down to her children and grandchildren, and continues like that. It seems simple, but to make a finished lantern is a whole process, many stages such as making frames, cutting paper and glass, pasting, bordering, decorating and completing the product.
With quick, skillful hands, Ms. Thanh just completed one lamp after another without having to stop to adjust, that is a whole process of working hard, skilled, and dedicated to the job. Each stage requires dexterity.
Doing this job requires diligence, perseverance, and meticulousness to be able to do it, a little bit of each ingredient, then the steps. Many people ask to try but cannot do it, the finished product is not even, or wrinkled, skewed, not meeting the requirements of the lamp," Ms. Thanh said.
Meticulously splitting each bamboo strip, Mr. Chien shared: "This bamboo must be chosen from other provinces, usually using types with long segments, when it comes back, it must be processed, soaked, and dried thoroughly to avoid termites. All stages are done manually, our whole family works together, each person does one job, even the youngest child, 4 years old, is passionate and helps his parents.
Mr. Chien said that during the Mid-Autumn Festival season, his family made about 20,000 star lanterns, 2,000 lanterns in the shape of animals, and other designs. To complete such a large number in time, after the Lunar New Year, the family started working, preparing everything and just doing it gradually to be ready for the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Keep the profession, keep the tradition
Lanterns in the shape of stars, fish, butterflies, rabbits... are stacked up. From large to small, people split bamboo, people glue paper, people draw patterns, people pack goods, each member takes on a stage, all creating a beautiful labor that few families have.
“Almost the work is done all year round, taking a few months off, then I make fabric flowers and other items. In general, all year round, almost the whole family is attached to the lantern making profession, which is also the main profession of the family, I do it to earn a living but also as a passion and enthusiasm to preserve traditions and culture,” Mr. Chien expressed.
Ms. Thanh recounted that her hometown was in the old Nam Dinh province, now belonging to Ninh Binh province. At the age of 5, she started helping her parents with simple tasks such as pasting paper and decorating lanterns, and now she has nearly 40 years of attachment to the profession. There are times when she feels tired and hard, but they still persistently do not give up the profession.
Ms. Thuy An - Ms. Thanh's daughter - shared: "I am happy with this job, it is both a family tradition and preserves the beauty of the Mid-Autumn Festival. I also inherit and continue to follow my family's profession and will also have more creativity to both update customer requests and preserve the traditional features of the lamp.
In the market, there are countless types of electronic lanterns with many diverse designs, but bamboo lanterns and glass paper still retain their unique quality, not mixed with other types of toys. Lanterns are associated with the beautiful memories of many generations of Vietnamese people, not only bringing joy to children but also showing the unique traditional beauty. It is this unique traditional feature that has attracted many people to buy and also contributes to preserving the long-standing cultural beauty.
