Bustling Paper Flowers of Thanh Tien
The 300-year-old Thanh Tien paper flower village is famed for its worship flowers, especially paper lotuses, serving Hue's folk beliefs.
With more than 300 years of history, Thanh Tien paper flower village bustles as Tet and spring draw near. The craft here springs from folk belief. In the old custom, paper flowers were solemnly placed in spots such as the Grandfather and Grandmother altars, the household shrine and the Kitchen God's altar.
In the days before the Lunar New Year, Thanh Tien village - in Phu Mau ward, Hue City, Thua Thien - Hue province - grows lively. Lying along the south bank of the lower Perfume River near the Sinh junction, for over 300 years the village has been renowned for its worship paper flowers, especially the lotus.
Every year as Tet and spring arrive, one easily comes across brilliantly coloured bundles of paper flowers sold at village and city markets. Paper flowers add their colours to Hue's spring, and on the Tet altar there is always a paper flower plant of many hues.
Replaced once a year at the Lunar New Year, the fresh flowers go up while the old ones are taken down and burned in a ritual called 'Tau'. In this way, Thanh Tien paper flowers have for generations become a cultural feature of the folk beliefs of Hue's people, spreading to neighbouring provinces such as Quang Tri and Da Nang, as well as wherever people from Hue live, each time Tet and spring return.
