On each Mid-Autumn Festival, the full moon in August, the lantern street in Ho Chi Minh City attracts many young people who come to take pictures and check in. The stalls are close together from the main street to the alley, the jubilant red color seems to overwhelm the whole street, making anyone passing by have to look back. Walking on the street, you will be overwhelmed by the variety of designs, sizes, and colors of different types of lanterns. Let’s join VietDreamTravel to discover what’s interesting in this lantern street area!
Where are the lantern streets in Ho Chi Minh City located?
Lantern streets are located on Tran Hung Dao, Luong Nhu Hoc, Phu Dinh, Nguyen Trai, and Nguyen An streets, Cho Lon Ward, where a large number of Chinese people have lived and settled for a long time, developing lantern production. At first, only Luong Nhu Hoc Street was the most famous for selling all kinds of lanterns. However, it has been expanding to more routes, but Lantern Street on Luong Nhu Hoc Street is still the busiest in Ho Chi Minh City.
The area is an ideal tourist destination during the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the atmosphere becomes even more bustling. Many families come here during the event, and they have to move step by step on the roads. Depending on your starting point, you can choose the most convenient route to visit this area. The most accurate way is to use Google Maps’ suggestions to find the shortest route from your location to Lantern Street when traveling to Ho Chi Minh City.
Original lantern streets in Ho Chi Minh City
This is an area where many Chinese people have lived and settled for a long time. They have developed the craft of lantern-making. According to Chinese tradition, the lantern creates a festive atmosphere, symbolizes reunion, and is used in almost all festivals. Besides lighting up and creating a joyful atmosphere at the festival at night, Chinese lanterns also carry symbolic meanings.
Vietnam’s Mid-Autumn Festival also originates from China, so it is partly affected, people always hang lanterns on this occasion. In particular, every mid-autumn festival comes, District 5 of Ho Chi Minh City becomes bustling again, crowded with people passing by, and visitors to Saigon flock to visit and buy lanterns.
Types of lanterns
Lanterns in here are very diverse in types, for example, royal, cloth, and paper lanterns. Motifs and decorative patterns on lanterns are divided into: floral motifs, figurative motifs, landscape motifs, flowers and birds, dragon and phoenix patterns, fish or insects with painted and embroidered materials, lace, calligraphy, collage motifs, or also lanterns with shapes moving around continuously.
Usually, the most common shape of the lantern is a red pumpkin, with golden tassels, but sometimes it is a square, diamond, round lantern, parachute, flying saucer, diamond, or garlic lanterns, animal shapes, star lights, … Lamp frames are made of bamboo, wood, steel fiber, or cloth wrapped around the lamp, which is made of silk or paper. Red glass paper and modern light lanterns that run on music are most popular and preferred by children.
In addition to traditional and modern lanterns, the stalls here also sell a number of other items, such as unicorn heads, masks, candlelit lanterns, crowns, and angel wings.
Other activities
In addition to visiting the bustling streets with their lanterns, you can also enjoy the unique cuisine of the Chinese people. In addition, there are quite a few strange Chinese tea dishes you can try, such as tea chicken seeds, snow mushroom ginkgo tea, and tonic ginseng…
There are often many special activities such as: flower kite, dragon and lion dance, fan dance, flag dance, ethnic music and dance, lamp match, ancient music, traditional performance, etc… in order to promote, maintain, and preserve the beauty of traditional festivals, contributing to promoting cultural images to international tourists.
Tips to know when going to lantern street in Ho Chi Minh City
Some notes not to be missed for a memorable trip to the lantern street are:
- The price of lanterns here ranges from 15,000 – 55,000 VND/piece depending on the type. You can bargain for the most reasonable.
- This is a place where many people gather, so all your valuables and personal belongings must be carefully protected to avoid loss.
- You should wear backpacks, keep handbags in front of your chest, and keep phones in your pockets, not in your hands.
- If you come by motorbike, choose a parking spot near this area so you can walk to enjoy the bustling atmosphere and take better pictures.
- You should buy a lantern so you can visit and take pictures in the most comfortable way.
Source: collected by An
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