HANOI, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Every Mid-Autumn Festival season, Do Thi Huong fills her stall on Hang Ma Street in the capital Hanoi's Old Quarter with star-shaped lanterns, small drums and other traditional toys that have been familiar to Vietnamese children for generations.
For 25 years, the 44-year-old trader has chosen to stick with such traditional items rather than battery-powered toys and modern lanterns that have become increasingly common.
"I just like selling these traditional folk toys," Huong told Xinhua.
Her family comes from northern Vietnam's Bao Dap village, a long-established craft village where generations of residents have made Mid-Autumn toys, and Huong said some families have left the trade over the years while others, including hers, continue to follow it.
For this year's festival season, Huong stocked about 3,000 large lanterns and 2,000 smaller ones, with most expected to be sold before the festival ends.
For Huong, their lasting appeal comes from more than their simple design or affordable price.
"They are the childhood memories of one generation after another, and when people grow up and have children, they buy them for their children to play with," she said.
The Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on Sept. 25 this year, is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. It has long been associated in Vietnam with family reunions, children's lantern processions, lion dances, mooncakes and trays of seasonal fruit.
Over generations, the festival also became closely linked with children, who carry lanterns, receive gifts and gather around festive trays, while families prepare food and make offerings to their ancestors.
That sense of family and continuity can also be found in a traditional confectionery shop run by Dinh Thi Tu Anh.
Anh said her family's traditional confectionery business has existed for nearly 100 years, passing from her grandfather to her parents and then to her, with the next generation gradually becoming involved.
Even as mooncakes today come in new flavors, smaller sizes and elaborate gift boxes, Anh said her family continues to make many of its cakes by hand and keeps long-standing recipes such as mixed-nut, lotus and mung bean fillings.
"When Hanoi people eat a traditional mooncake, they can still feel that the Mid-Autumn Festival has arrived," Anh told Xinhua.
The full moon of the eighth lunar month comes around the autumn harvest season, when farm work traditionally eased, and families and communities had more time to gather, celebrate and give thanks for the year's crops.
Seasonal fruits are therefore a familiar part of Mid-Autumn displays, and among the more distinctive handmade decorations is the pomelo dog, often placed alongside fruit and cakes for children.
For around 25 years, Nguyen Thi Hai has made pomelo dogs, decorative animals whose bodies are covered with fluffy pomelo segments and whose eyes can be made from longan seeds.
Hai first became familiar with the craft as a child and still builds the animals around banana-stem frames instead of replacing them entirely with newer materials such as foam.
She said pomelos are especially suitable for the Mid-Autumn season because the fruit is harvested around this time, though choosing the right fruit is essential to making the segments spread evenly and hold their shape.
"The pomelo dog is something that cannot be missing from the Mid-Autumn Festival," Hai said.
Beyond its seasonal connection, "the dog itself carries meanings of loyalty, warmth and happiness in the family," Hai added. ■
