Lantern Workshop Street

Those glowing silk lanterns that make Hoi An one of the most photographed towns in Asia are not just decorations. They are a living craft tradition, and this is where you can watch them being born. Welcome to the Lantern Workshop Street area, clustered around Nguyen Hoang Street on An Hoi Island, where artisans shape bamboo and stretch silk into the iconic lanterns that have become the very symbol of this town. The tradition of lantern making in Hoi An stretches back centuries, rooted in both Vietnamese and Chinese customs. Lanterns have deep symbolic meaning in Vietnamese culture. Round lanterns represent fullness and completeness. Garlic-shaped lanterns ward off evil spirits. The color matters too: red for luck and happiness, yellow for wealth, green for hope and health, pink for romance. When you see the hundreds of lanterns hanging above the streets of the Ancient Town, you are looking at a complex language of wishes and blessings. The artisans here work with remarkable skill and efficiency. A single lantern begins with thin strips of bamboo, soaked in water to make them pliable, then bent and wired into the distinctive round, cylindrical, or diamond shapes. The bamboo frame is then covered with...