The mid-Autumn festival 2013 will come in about one month, but many kinds of Vienamese traditional lanterns have been displayed for sale at markets and trade centers along Binh Duong Avenue with diversification of design and color.
Mid-Autumn festival
is a traditional festival of Oriental people in general and Vietnamese people
in particular. But, it gets more unique with Vietnamese people’s creativeness,
featuring the cultural identities and spiritual life of Vietnamese people. Along
with normal rituals, each Vietnamese family pays special importance to making
mid-Autumn lanterns during the festival. 
Mid-Autumn lanterns with diversification of design and color on display at TDM market
Every time the mid-Autumn festival approaches, all villages get animated with activities of making traditional lanterns. But, in recent years, traditional mid-Autumn lanterns made from handicraft items from bamboo, rattan and papers, including star-shaped lanterns, paper fans, bird cages…have seemed to disappear, due to the strong competitiveness of imported mid-Autumn toys.
But this year, traditional mid-Autumn lanterns have seemed to be “regenerated” with many eye-catching designs at markets and trade centers in TDM city, Di An town, Thuan An town…Along with realizing about the significance and benefit of using Vietnamese goods, parents’ good orientations on consumption aesthetics towards the traditional cultural value of Vietnamese people for their children have contributed to promote the develoment o the traditional mid-Autumn lanterns making field that was on the wane.
Nguyen Thanh Toan, staff of a mid-Autumn cake shop at six-way crossroads of TDM market said: “This year, there is a diversification of mid-Autumn lanterns, especially Vietnamese ones. Most Vietnamese traditional mid-Autumn lanterns this year are displayed for sale with better quality and more beautiful design than those in the previous years. Also thanks to this, we have received many orders with a large amount of Vietnamese traditional mid-Autumn lanterns from province-based agencies and schools”.
As surveyed, many kinds of Vietnamese traditional mid-Autumn lanterns have been displayed for sale in comparison with the previous year. Customers’ taste orientation has obviously been domesticized. Traditional mid-Autumn lanterns are sold at between 40,000 and 120,000 each while imported ones have lower prices with warnings that are unsafe to users.
In the face of information about the harmful effects of imported mid-Autumn lanterns, the use of Vietnamese-made ones is seen as an intelligent selection. This trend not only brings benefit to customers, helping uphold the traditional cultural value of Vietnamese people, but also promotes the development o Vietnam’s consumption goods industry. Hence, displaying traditional lanterns for sale at markets, trade centers and in the front of school gates is seen as the beautiful image of this year’s mid-Autumn season.
Reported by Pham Hien-Khuc Ngoc-Translated by K.T
