Lantern is not only a trade brand but also the original nature as well as pride of people in Hoi An Ancient town.  Up to now, the job of making lantern in Hoi An is 400 years old. There are 32 factories where produce the lantern; the lanterns here are exported to Japan, countries in Europe and America… Lantern manufacture attracts the domestic traveler as well as foreigner whenever they set foot on Hoi An.

Walking around the ancient town, visitors easily come across the colorful lanterns which are sold inside the shop and hang in front of store day and night. The lanterns are decorated nicely as well as plentiful about shape and color; these lanterns pull the foot of tourist back whenever visit this charming ancient town. Hoi An people are proud of the lanterns which are made by themselves. “Hoi An lantern” product include nine shapes: circle, octagon, hexagon, shape of garlic, papaw, umbrella…; besides, there are shapes of dragon, fishes with many colors. 

The lantern manufacture had become traditional   handicraft here. The process of lantern making is divided into two main steps include making bamboo frame and fabric covering.  Firstly, we have to soak bamboo in salt-water about ten days to avoid woodworm; after that dry it and split bamboo into tape depending on size of each kind of lantern. The artisans use their hands to make proportional frame.  The fabric used to cover lantern is colorful silk because it’s elastic and not ragged during pulling. They cut fabric into many pieces according to the size of lantern first, and then glue it on frame. The craftsman must be careful to pull out fabric at the curved parts. They use the scissors to cut and trim fabric after finish glue fabric…

Each shape and color of the lantern has different signification. For example, the circle lantern is symbol for harmonization. According to the conception of folk, the circle lantern hung inside house is symbol for warmness, peace and lucky for us.   Every house is sparking under the moon at night on lunar 15^th every month.

Annually, the lanterns which are abundant of color size and shape light up on the autumn; it creates the wonderful beauty for Hoi An ancient town.  Hoi An lantern is beautiful, light and importantly it could be folded to bring.  Therefore there are many tourists buy lantern here as souvenir or significant gifts for friends and family.