A rare place that preserves the traditional craft of making Mid-Autumn toys in Hung Yen
Việt Nam•16/08/2024
Hung Yen – Just one hour from Hanoi , visitors can go to Ong Hao village to learn about the craft of making papier-mâché masks and feel the atmosphere of the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival.
About 30km from the center of Hanoi, Ong Hao village (Lieu Xa commune, Yen My district, Hung Yen ) is a long-standing craft village making traditional Mid-Autumn toys. While many families have changed their occupations, Mr. Vu Huy Dong's house still preserves his father's profession and has become a place of interest and learning for many tourists when coming to Lieu Xa. For over 60 years, Ong Hao villagers have passed down the craft of making Mid-Autumn Festival toys, but now there are only a few families like Mr. Dong’s. His family’s Dong Hanh facility mainly produces papier-mâché masks in the shapes of rabbits, cats, buffalos, dogs, tigers, Ong Dia, Thi No, etc. Making papier-mâché masks is not a difficult or complicated job, but it requires the craftsman to be meticulous and careful in every stage of production. The final stage of coloring and drawing the mask is the most important in creating the soul of the product. All the Mid-Autumn Festival toys of Ong Hao village are made by hand. For the masks, the craftsman will initially use a cement mold to cover the paper with glue, the paper used to make the masks is mostly used such as school books, old design paper... After finishing, let the mask dry and separate from the mold to dry completely. The dried papier-mâché masks will have a very solid shape, ready to be drawn and colored, and any excess details trimmed to complete. Every year, about a month and a half before the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, households making traditional Mid-Autumn Festival toys like Mr. Huy's work day and night to produce in time for orders. Despite many ups and downs over the years, customer tastes have changed, papier-mâché masks, like many other traditional crafts, have also had to gradually change. Mr. Dong has created 20 mask designs including 12 zodiac animals and folk characters… In addition to papier-mâché masks, Ong Hao villagers also produce drums, leather-faced drums of various sizes, suitable for playing in the hand, for decoration, or even for festival performances... Lion and unicorn masks are also popular during holidays, not just the Mid-Autumn Festival. Nowadays, not only for children to play with, papier-mâché masks, drums, lion heads, and unicorn heads are also bought by many shops for decoration, and tourists buy them as souvenirs... Visitors to Ong Hao village will have the opportunity to learn how to make and buy Mid-Autumn Festival toys at traditional establishments like Mr. Hao's house. The price of each mask is from about 20,000 VND.
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