Song Ho commune in Thuan Thanh district of Bac Ninh province is renowned locally for making and shipping votive papers during the Vu Lan Festival, a major festival of expressing gratitude to the parents or also a festival of forgiveness of wandering souls celebrated in the 7th lunar month.
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Bustling scenes of local people hard at work can easily be spotted across the village over recent days.
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Local villagers are busy making paper models of earthly luxuries for those in the afterworld.
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Paper models of houses, cars, planes, helicopters, and all manner of earthly possessions are offered to the dead.
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The practice of making such offerings is observed during the seventh lunar month.
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Nguyen The Hung is a local craftsman who has spent the last 30 years producing paper offerings. He says that he has received a huge number of orders over recent days.
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The price for each product can vary, ranging from hundreds of thousands up to several millions of VND.
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Votive objects come in various different shapes and sizes and can be purchased in the locality.
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This type of work requires craftsmen to be meticulous whilst also possessing great skill.
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A trader uses a motorbike as his main means of transportation in order to ship the products to customers.
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