Nón Lá Cúa Viȇt Nam

Dainty peach blossoms, golden chrysanthemums, sun yellow marigolds... 

Mike and I had the opportunity to visit Vietnam in January 2011 during the Lunar New Year celebration or Tết Nguyên Đán (commonly referred to as TET) so our image of Vietnam is colored with the vibrancy of the flowers which celebrate the new year, a new beginning.  In Ho Chi Minh City, still called Saigon by locals, Vietnam's largest city closes a major boulevard and it becomes the display center for elaborate flower exhibits. Throughout Vietnam, city and village streets are lined with vendors selling flowers, trees, red lanterns, and other symbols of the New Year.  Motorcycles zoomed through town with orange trees secured precariously behind the driver.   Flowers and red lanterns adorn homes, streets and public places.

Flowers for sale in Hanoi to celebrate TET

 

Carrying her purchase home on the back of a motor scooter

Paying homage to one's ancestors with offerings of food.  The five fruits in the bowl at
the lower left represent the five basic elements:  metal, wood, water, fire and earth 

Graves of one's ancestors are also decorated.  The Papier-mache flowers
and birds, used on family alters, are made in a factory in North Vietnam

 

Papier-mâché dioramas on a street in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) depict scenes of the holiday.
They could be considered the equivalent of the old Macy's Christmas window displays.

Happy New Year from Nha Trang.  In the Vietnamese lunar calendar, 2011 was the year of
the Cat.  In the Chinese calendar, it was the year of the Rabbit.  See note #1 below.

 

A street in Hanoi.  Note the people wearing conical hats.

TET holiday decorations for sale on a street in Hanoi.

Close-up of TET holiday decorations in a shop in Hanoi

 

More decorations to adorn the alters found in every home, to pay respect to one's ancestors

 

TET holiday tree, a symbol of good luck and good fortune.  This one is located in the rotunda of the
Saigon Central Post Office, an early 20th century building designed by architect Gustave Eiffel

This floral beauty also acts as a backdrop to the ancient and ubiquitous symbol of Vietnamese culture:  The conical or non la (leaf) hat.  The origin of the non la can be traced back 3,000 years.  According to myth the conical hat was introduced to man by the rain-shielding goddess.  She created the conical hat to help protect man during the torrential rainfall while he was working in the rice paddies.  The conical hat can protect the wearer from torrential rains or glaring sun.  It can also be used as a basket for carrying goods or other practical purposes.  Conical hats are worn by everyone from peasants in the field to the wealthiest of the wealthy.  There are many variations designed for the young, the old, troops, monks, etc.  Conical hats also differ regionally. Today there are at least 50 variations of conical hats; all, however, are still handcrafted from start to finish. 

Conical hats are everywhere...on a boatman on the Thu Bon River in Hoi An...

...on a young boy posing on his buffalo for tourists...

 

...on a worker making clay roof tiles in North Vietnam...

...on a monk pruning trees in the temple garden in Dalat in the Central Highlands... 

 

...who stopped his work to pose for a picture...

 

...and on a street sweeper in Hanoi who paused to talk to a woman vendor.

Leaves for the hats are gathered from the forest and then exposed to one night of dew to soften them.  When the leaves are dry but still malleable, they are flattened by hand or by ironing.  Leaf hats usually consist of 16 to 18 rings made from special bamboo.  The framework is fastened together by a thread called doac, made from the leaves of a special kind of reed.  The frame is covered with palm leaves, sewn together with silk.  It takes fifteen steps from gathering the leaves to completing the hat.  The last step of making these beautiful objects is to paint them with a coat of attar oil to keep them clean and smooth.

One special and distinctive conical hat is the non baitho or literally "poem conical hats" created only in the city of Hue, the old Imperial city.  Traditionally, these conical hats contained poetic verses.  Today the poetry is often replaced with flowers, dragons, pictures or landscapes.  The characters of the verse - or other image - are cut from a layer of palm and inserted between two additional layers of palm, all of which are then stitched together.  When the conical hat is observed against the sunlight, the design can be seen.  An experienced craftsman/artist can create two a day.  These are functional yet beautiful pieces of art; fragile yet durable. 

The picture in this hat shows a pagoda on one side...

...and lovers framed in a heart on the other side.

Mike and I had the privilege of meeting a young woman who created these celebrated hats.  We were introduced to her by Tri, our guide, whose family home is in Hue.  We were able to observe the young entrepreneur as she sat flat on the floor and created her pieces of art.  She used her one hand and her feet as she had been missing an arm from the elbow down since birth.  She created these beautiful masterpieces with great talent and ability.

Despite a birth defect, this woman can make two hats per day.
When she sells them, she nets about $2 (US) per hat.

 

Look at the intricate construction of this hat, made by the woman from Hue,
pictured above.  All of these hats are 100% hand-crafted.

 

A street vendor, wearing her conical hat, sells TET decorations

 

This woman operates a gondola-like boat, primarily for tourists, on the Mekong River.

 

Workers in a rice paddy.  Planting and harvesting is all done by hand.

 

One of the workers (pink coat in top photo) stands up to stretch and take a break.

These iconic mementos are not easy to get home.  Obviously, they can’t be packed, and several in our group – myself included – carried our purchases through the southern half of Vietnam, and all of Cambodia, on planes, boats, buses and motorcycles.  But it was worth the effort, both for the wonderful treasures we brought back and for the Road Stories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note #1:  The Vietnamese and the Chinese Lunar Calendars each have 12 signs of the Zodiac and are identical except for the fourth sign.  In Vietnam, the fourth Zodiac sign is the Cat.  In China, the fourth Zodiac sign is a Rabbit.  So, although 2011 was the Year of the Cat in Vietnam, it was the Year of the Rabbit in China.  We thought it strange to see the giant Rabbit in Nha Trang, until we learned of this difference.  So, the Rabbit wasn't wrong, maybe he was just lost.   http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/Cat.htm