Tet at Thanh Tien Paper Flower Village
For over 300 years, Thanh Tien has made traditional paper flowers for worship and decoration, brightening Hue's outskirts each Lunar New Year.
Brilliant flower sprays appear along every road on the outskirts, evoking the distinctive beauty of the old imperial land each time spring returns.
The traditional paper-flower craft of Thanh Tien village dates back more than 300 years. The village, in Phu Mau commune, Phu Vang district, lies along the lower Perfume River, about 7 km from Hue city.
The paper flowers here come in two main kinds: one for worship, in many colours, and the other paper lotuses for decoration and to sell to tourists. The worship flowers are bought up by traders who come to the village and then sell them at markets throughout the region.
Each spray of Thanh Tien paper flowers includes orchid, lily, rose, chrysanthemum, wild sunflower and tuong vi rose. At the tip of the spray is a rice leaf, symbolising the locality's characteristic farming trade. At the Lunar New Year, the villagers take down the old paper flowers, burn them and then replace them with new ones.
Photographer Nguyen Van Truc (Hue) shares that, through his photo series, he hopes to introduce a local cultural feature and, at the same time, to see this traditional craft spread and preserved.
Thanh Tien village paper flowers are made chiefly to supply the people of Hue for decorating the altars of the Grandfather and Grandmother, the Kitchen God in the home, or the communal houses and shrines at Tet.
