A Town of Lanterns

In Hoi An, lanterns symbolize luck, prosperity, happiness, and the guiding of spirits, because of this there are lanterns everywhere! We spent a lot of time in Old Town looking at handmade souvenir stands, shops, food stands, and just exploring! We even released a floating lantern on Thu Bon River from a boat. Old Town is famous for its yellow walled houses, lantern lit streets, and being along the Thu Bon River. When we walked down Old Town at night I was amazed by how many lanterns there were. It was really pretty.

Lantern Making Class
One day we decided we should make a lantern! Our dad found a lantern making class near Old Town that you could make a lantern entirely from scratch. A few days later we headed off to our class, when we arrived the staff greeted is with some tea. After we finished our tea, introductions and deciding which shape we wanted our lantern as, we started making the lanterns!

How we made our lanterns

1. We picked our shape out of the options- cake, papaya, sunrise, and sunset.
2. Next we picked out pieces of bamboo that worked with our shape.
3. We bent our bamboo on a piece of wood shaped as a cylinder.
4. Then we strung the bamboo on both sides, through a piece of metal shaped like string, then around a wooden doughnut at the top and bottom.
5. After we pushed the wooden doughnuts down on a piece of metal connecting the two you get your lantern shape!
6. Knot a string around all of the pieces of bamboo so it creates a circle.
7. We had to pick out a fabric then glue it on to the lantern on all four sides.
8. Then trim the sides of the fabric to make it look less messy.
9. Pick out a color of fabric to go around the top and the bottom of the lantern.
10. Lastly, we chose a tassel that matched our lantern.

It was so fun making the lanterns! The hardest part was putting the fabric on because I had to align it perfectly.

The lanterns fold up like an umbrella so we can pack it in our suitcase. I look forward to hanging it up in the basement with lights!