Nam Dinh (VNA) - ♚As Mid-Autumn Festival fast approaches on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, craft villages making festival lanterns are swamped with orders. A good example of this is the Bao Dap village in Nam Truc district, Nam Dinh province.

Bao Dap Craft Village (Hong Quang Commune, Nam Truc District, Nam Dinh Province) has been making artificial flowers and Mid-Autumn star lanterns since the late 19th century. These traditional crafts were passed down from generation to generation, therefore, most people in this village know the right way to make these traditional toys. Since 1960s, these products have brought a major source of income for people here. Star lanterns were facing the threat of disappearing due to modern toys, but have once again won favour among local customers, especially since the pandemic. The complete process of making star lanterns is quite complicated. All the stages in the process are completely done by hand. People in the craft village prepare materials over a few months for the Mid-Autumn Festival. A complete star lantern takes over 60 steps to complete. Each step demands the maker’s high skill and persistence.  Professional makers often divide the time to complete each stage in the process of making star lanterns. The first 3 months are for making the frames, in the next 3 months, the makers focus on gluing and decorating. Near the time of Mid-Autumn Festival, the makers only need to pack and export goods for traders to take to localities for consumption. Bao Dap star lanterns are not only present in northern cities and provinces but also in southern areas. At the most prosperous production period, Bao Dap craft village had 7 villages with about 1,000 households, up to 300 families engaging in traditional star lamps. However, there was also a period of time, the starlight was overshadowed by toys originating from China flooding the market, making work in the craft village difficult. In addition, 2 years affected by the COVID-19 epidemic also caused lantern sales to plummet. As soon as life returned to normal after the pandemic, the demand for traditional toys increased. As a result, in 2022, the villagers of Bao Dap craft had a “bumper” season from the sales of star lantern products.  This Mid-Autumn season, the craft village continues to receive positive signals as demand for lanterns is higher than the previous year. Large lanterns purchased by traders cost from 8,000-10,000 VND/unit, medium-sized lanterns from 7,000-8,000VND/unit, and small ones range from 4,000-5,000VND/unit depending on the time. Subtracting expenses, professionals earn net profit from 180,000-250,000 VND/person/day. For households with high production capacity, tens of thousands of lanterns can be shipped, bringing income of hundreds of millions of VND/month./.