Hang Ma Street gets hectic as Mid-Autumn Festival nears

Jenna Duong - Le Giang

Aug 21, 2022 / 06:52 PM

Hang Ma Street is a sales hub of decorations. After a year of closure due to Covid-19, the street is glowing again with various colored lanterns.

With three weeks to go until the Mid-Autumn Festival, the atmosphere on Hang Ma Street is already extremely festive.

In contrast to last year’s gloomy and empty scene, this year, right from the end of the 7th lunar month, many shops have been busy displaying a variety of colorful toys.

Every Mid-Autumn Festival, Hang Ma Street is known as the sale hub of decorations. After a year of closure due to Covid-19, this year, the street is glowing again with the brilliant colors of lanterns, star lanterns and a myriad of eye-catching decorative items.

Coming to Hang Ma Street these days, anyone can feel an atmosphere of busy trading. Shops along the street have begun to display mid-Autumn decorations and toys - both traditional and modern - for children.

This year, most of the toys here are lanterns in various frames, including star lanterns and revolving lanterns, and masks, all of which are familiar yet beautifully made and decorated.

Thanh, an owner of a mid-autumn toy shop at 74 Hang Ma Street, said that this year, she stocks more traditional toys than modern ones because old-fashioned items are not only diverse and familiar but also environmentally friendly, "and choosing folk toys is contributing to preserving traditional values as well," she told The Hanoi Times.

The prices of traditional toys range from VND20,000 to VND100,000 each, depending on the size and type.

A wide variety of traditional paper mache masks are also on sale, depicting such characters as Chu Teu or Uncle Comedian, Thi No, Chu Cuoi or Moon Boy, Jade Rabbit, and the buffalo, among others and also costing upwards of VND30,000 or around US$1.2.

Located in the center of the Old Quarter, Hang Ma is the most vibrant and colorful street in Hanoi on holidays. Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, young people from everywhere flock to this area to shop, have fun and take photos.