The star lamp is one of the traditional and familiar toys of children in particular and each Vietnamese in general, is a distinctive feature of the Mid-Autumn Festival in our country.
Ong Sao lamp is used during the Mid-Autumn Festival. No one knows the exact origin or the time when this lamp was born. According to the elders, the starlight was modeled after the stars glittering in the sky around the moon. Mid-Autumn Festival is the "moon" New Year, the moon enters the most beautiful round and round period of the year. Therefore, parents often make star-shaped lamps for their children so that the full moon night will "spare" throughout the village. This is almost like a form of moon procession.
Explanation of the Lamp he stars
Ong Sao lantern is a handcrafted lantern that is very familiar to every Vietnamese. To make a lamp, he takes a lot of effort and requires the craftsman to be skillful. First, the worker splits the pieces of bamboo into 10 bamboo sticks attached to two star shapes. Then, the worker takes the 2 created stars using a string to tie the stars. Split four more short rods of equal length, into the interstellar intersections to erect two bulging star faces. Fixed intersections. After the star frame is firmly attached, continue to apply glue to the surface of the bamboo stick of each star. Finally, the worker uses colored paper as he likes to stick it on the surface of the bamboo stick, that is, the areas that have just been glued. The paper used in traditional star lamps is transparent colored cellophane so that when lit candles will give shimmering colors. In addition, more paper can be cut into beautiful contours to paste on the wings of the stars.
The image of star lamps seems to be imprinted in everyone's memories, it calls back to childhood memories with their eagerness to have a lamp to look after the moon. During the mid-autumn festival, every full moon in August, mothers and fathers moved to pick up bamboo and buy candles to make the children a lantern to welcome the Moon. The children holding red and green lights, sparkling in succession, walking around the communal yard singing the song "The lamp of the star" (Pham Tuyen):
“The light of the pentagram is bright.
The handle is very long and the handle is too high.
I held the starlight, I sang loudly.
Bright star lights of the full moon festival!
Corinthians Corinthians spare, spare spare spare Corinthians Corinthians!
This light beam shining star fun.
Corinthians Corinthians spare, spare Corinthians Corinthians Corinthians Corinthians.
Uncle Ho's star shines in the place ... "
These familiar images show the unchangeable position of the star lamp in the soul life of every Vietnamese person.
Today, the use of star lanterns is somewhat weaker than other lanterns, especially plastic lanterns originating from China. Most of the groceries during the Mid-Autumn days are mostly plastic lamps, almost no longer see the star lamp. If there is any place that still sells star lamps, only Hang Ma (Hanoi), but the quantity is very small. Partly due to the cheaper cost of industrial lamps. Due to its low price, it is likely that Chinese lanterns are made from poor quality plastic, containing many heavy metal components that can affect the health of users, especially for children. Partly because tastes change. Plastic lanterns are often colorful, eye-catching decoration, often attached with colorful lights and funny sounds, so children are more interested. Therefore, the people making lanterns are less and less stars, craft lantern making also fades. However, every Mid-Autumn Festival comes, somewhere there is still a picture of a five-pointed star lamp displayed in beautiful small rows and sometimes there are a few children watching, choosing for themselves a medium star lamp. Italy.
Each Asian country welcomes the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15 (lunar calendar) and chooses for themselves a lantern with its own unique nationality. Vietnamese people always choose the star lamp as a sign of their identity!