Ong Hao Village in Hung Yen Province is rushing to complete thousands of drums for the Mid-Autumn Festival which falls on September 24.

Ong Hao Village in Hung Yen Province

The family of Vu Huy Tu have amade drums for three generations and are busy these days. They used to made drums from bilinga wood but turned to bodhi wood and canarium wood more recently. Tu's mother chops the wood into round shapes before the drum bodies are cut out by the machine.

Covering the drumhead is difficult and only a few people left in Ong Hao Village are skilled enough to do this task. "I make 30 to 40 drums a day. You need to be skilled to give the drums sound and keep the drumhead intact," said Nguyen Dinh May.

The villagers mostly use water buffalo skin drumheads. The skins are submerged in water from five to seven days and dried out before they can be used. All of the drums are painted red before finished with a handle.

Vu Huy Linh, the drum painter said, "Painting looks easy but it's not. You must make sure that the coat is even and not touch the drumheads."

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, Hanoi traders often buy a large number of drums at the price of VND50,000 (USD2) to VND100,000 each. The villagers also make paper masks and lanterns for the festivals.

Some photos of the village:

Making the drumheads

Thousands of drums and masks made for the festival

dtinews