The strange story of “making fake things, earning real money” during Mr. Cong’s Tet

Elephants and horses offered to Mr. Cong and Mr. Tao lost revenue

In Hanoi, craft villages produce votive paper Phuc Am (Duyen Thai commune, Thuong Tin district) has been famous for distributing offerings to “people of the dead” for many generations. Mr. Cong Ong Tao close up Tet should have been is the main crop of craft village households here.

But not many families in the craft village still produce Ong Cong Ong Tao votive paper to supply to the market. Hung’s family, too, mainly makes offerings to serve needs after the Lunar New Year.

According to local people, Phuc Am village used to do rattan and bamboo weaving. When market demand is decreasing, many families turn to producing votive papers. In every corner of the village, there are effigies of horses, elephants, dragon boats, carriages… serving customers going to temples and shrines…

Over 10 years of making votive papers, Hung has witnessed every little change. of craft villages. Up to now, families in the village still mainly make handcrafted votive objects using human effort to make a profit.

“In the past, there were a few families in the village that followed the votive profession, so we worked all day long and still had no work to do. “Currently, the number of people working in this profession is increasing, so there are fewer and fewer jobs,” Mr. Hung shared.

Since the Covid-19 epidemic, the demand for votive paper has decreased. seriously reducing the number of leisure hours of Mr. Hung’s family more and more.

In the past few years, Mr. Hung’s family has made very few offerings to Mr. Cong and Mr. Tao, mainly just to serve their needs. Praying for Tet holidays of friends and family.

Explaining this, Mr. Hung said that because there are many craft villages in other localities that apply machinery to produce votive offerings to Mr. Cong. Apples are produced on a large scale, making it difficult for traditional craft villages to compete.

Because of manual work to complete a set of offerings to Mr. Cong and Mr. Apple, the craftsman must do all the steps such as drawing product samples and photocopying samples. According to the size, paste the sample onto opaque silver paper, cut and paste it, line it with colored paper, and finally complete the finished product.

Each step requires the worker to calculate meticulously, taking a lot of time and effort. The price of the product is not high.

That’s why Hung’s family mainly makes votive papers like horses and elephants for kings and mandarins… to serve guests at the early spring ceremony. To avoid not having enough supplies during Tet, his factory has prepared many different votive offerings at this time.

“January and February are my family’s votive production season. “In order to meet the needs of customers outside of Tet, I have to hire 6-7 more workers,” Mr. Hung said.

The job of making votive objects has many unnamed tasks that take up a lot of time and diligence all day long. day. At peak times, Mr. Hung’s whole family had to work hard until 2 a.m.

votive paper listed on the stock exchange

Mrs. Nguyen Tan (60 years old) are diligently applying white paper paste to the bodies of horses with bamboo frames larger than people. In addition to making votive papers at home, Ms. Tan’s family rented a workshop to expand production scale.

In addition to producing votive offerings to worship the Cong Ong Tao during Tet, her family focuses on making offerings to serve tourists go on spring tours to pray for the beginning of the year.

Most of the materials such as bamboo and paper frames are imported with a large amount of capital.

“Doing this job earns just It’s a little more leisurely than being a worker and less hard work. The highest requirement for the job is meticulous perseverance because there are many time-consuming steps,” Ms. Tan said.

These days, her workshop focuses on preparing votive offerings for service. customers’ need to go to ceremonies after Tet. This is the main production season of those who make votive papers.

“Making fake items to earn real money” “Mrs. Tan laughed happily. The family’s products are distributed throughout the country wherever there is demand.

When discussing a enterprise Votive papers listed on the stock exchange earn 2 billion VND each Mrs. Tan was very curious that day. One thing she confirmed was true about this year’s situation: this company’s revenue this year decreased by 60%, the lowest in the past 10 years. Market developments in Phuc Am votive paper village also reflect a similar situation.

A votive maker who has been in the profession for decades believes that the units business New votive papers have “huge” revenue while craftsmen directly has only average income. Anyway, this job helps Ms. Tan and her family have enough to make ends meet without having to work too hard.

That’s why all her life she only sticks to She worked on cutting and pasting votive offerings until her eyes became blurry and her hands trembled so she could no longer continue working.

Every day her family welcomes many groups of tourists who come to visit curiously about the flocks. Colorful elephant horses of all sizes from small to large. In fact, it’s no less foreign customers wanted to bring such unique products home.