Nostalgic Hue in the colors of Thanh Tien bougainvillea

(CLO) The ancient capital of Hue has Thanh Tien village, famous for its traditional paper flower making craft that has been going on for over 300 years. Every year, when Tet comes, Thanh Tien village bustles with making paper flowers, and then the colorful paper flowers spread everywhere, signaling the arrival of another Tet.

Thanh Tien village used to belong to Mau Tai commune, Phu Vang district, Trieu Phong prefecture, now belongs to Phu Mau commune, Phu Vang district, Thua Thien Hue province. The village is located on the southern bank of the downstream of the poetic and peaceful Huong river.

Hue Hoai Co in the color of paper flowers in the picture 1 — A family making traditional paper flowers in Thanh Tien village. Photo: Minh Khue

According to the Tran family genealogy of Thanh Tien village, the book Dai Nam Nhat Thong Chi, a set of Vietnamese geography books compiled by the National History Institute of the Nguyen Dynasty during the reign of King Tu Duc (19th century), the section listing statistics of Vietnamese handicrafts from the 16th to 19th centuries mentioned the paper flower making profession in Thanh Tien.

In the past, Thanh Tien paper flowers were often used to decorate places of worship. The reason for this was because Hue people attached great importance to rituals and worship, but unfortunately, Hue has a harsh climate, with a lot of sun and rain, so it is not possible to grow flowers, and flowers are one of the four most important things for worship: "incense, flowers, lamps, bananas", so people had to use paper flowers instead of fresh flowers, which became a custom over time. And also according to Hue people's concept, paper flowers are pure flowers, not affected by the impurity caused by fertilizers like fresh flowers, so they are very suitable for sacred worship.

Like the character of Hue people, Thanh Tien paper flowers are simple, not flashy or splendid, but charming, discreet, gentle but no less sophisticated, luxurious and noble, especially the paper lotus flowers. The pink or light blue paper lotus flowers are very vivid, from afar they look like real flowers.

Hue Hoai Co in the color of the paper flower in the picture 2 — Making Thanh Tien paper flowers is not complicated, just requires skillful hands. Photo: Minh Khue

Over time, the paper flower making profession in Thanh Tien has had its ups and downs. There were even times when it seemed to have died out due to the hardships of the times. Fortunately, in the past ten years or so, the old profession has had the opportunity to recover and develop.

During these days before Tet, if you have the opportunity to visit Hue, you will have the opportunity to admire the beauty of colorful bougainvillea trees on the streets and in the spring flower markets. Thanh Tien bougainvillea is now not only a product used for worship but also a unique handicraft product of the ancient capital, loved by many people to decorate and decorate architectural spaces with artistic features, and even bought by tourists as souvenirs to bring all over the world.