Cultural package in Tet gifts

Gift of remembrance, gift of love

Ms. Minh Trang, 40 years old, clearly felt the warm smile of her former teacher who is over 70 years old when she came to wish her a happy new year. The simple gift basket she and her classmates chose to bring was a tonic and a new book that won the National Book Award. "She is from Hanoi so we chose the book "Who else sings about Hanoi" by Hanoi scholar Nguyen Truong Quy. She was very happy after reading it and asked us to remember to give her more books about Hanoi next time," said Ms. Minh Trang.

According to experts, giving gifts is giving culture.

Giving books, although still sporadic, has become a gift-giving trend. However, this trend is enough for many book publishers to regularly release books for Tet in recent years. In particular, Dong A Company often cooperates with Literature Publishing House to release Tet books before Tet. This year, Tet Giap Thin 2024 Book, an anthology of literature, poetry, music and paintings on the theme of spring and Tet by these two publishers, has content selected by writer Ho Anh Thai.

Gift designers have also had spring designs for many years. These designs are often related to the zodiac. With product models that are familiar to the market, the owners sometimes change the gift packaging design to suit. Meanwhile, some units have had good products, good packaging designs that have been tested over many years and continue to maintain their own cultural features in their products.

Designer Le Huy (Lam Phong brand) this year has a gift model called The Story of the Dragon with an egg and the dragon that hatched from it. According to designer Le Huy, the dragon egg is made of rosewood and traditional lacquer. The eggshell has a stylized cloud and fire pattern from the pattern on the stone steps of Kinh Thien Palace, a national treasure. The rolling clouds also evoke the image of a dragon, like a dragon meeting clouds, clouds turning into a dragon. "It is a wish for favorable weather, bountiful crops, luck and prosperity," said the designer.

Like previous years, designer Le Huy's gifts still maintain many versions with different materials. This year, the small dragon is made of 2 materials: brass and solid silver, completely handmade. When placed on top, the dragon seems to be flying up from the egg in the "Thang Long" shape or placed on the base to admire the giant egg in a tilted position, customizable at any angle. On the egg, you can see the sparkling gold veins flowing like the golden mark of a thousand years of tradition.

A gift version of Buddha statue made from the original statue at Phat Tich Pagoda

Artisan Hai Gom has designs related to dragons such as ceramic dragon boats and ceramic dragon mascots. This artist and designer has just been honored by the Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism for his contributions to the Creative Design Week 2023. Hai Gom's products have traditional glaze colors but have an open spirit. With dragons, he has "adventurous" creations to make this mascot more folk-style.

Meanwhile, Be Ca restaurant, with its family-style dishes, continues to offer gift baskets of jams and traditional dishes. This year, Ms. Thu Huong, the restaurant owner, has expanded to include dishes from the South and Central regions, but Hanoi dishes are still the mainstay. She maintains gift baskets packaged in brightly colored red, green and pink rattan boxes.

The cultural vein is inexhaustible.

Ms. Thu Huong said that in recent years, gift design has received much more attention. Tet gift baskets therefore have more cultural significance. Food gift baskets are also packaged with small ceramic statues, or with bamboo and rattan boxes, or even elaborate lacquer. However, even with this gift trend, there are also specific considerations such as price and the ability to reuse boxed items.

Tet books have been made regularly for 6 years now.

Dragon Story Design

"If a few banh chung are packaged in a box with elaborate dragons, it will increase the price of the product very high. This is something that manufacturers often have to consider. Or a box that is too elaborate may not be suitable for the interior space of the recipient. When choosing the current packaging method, I want to use a bamboo box because this box can be reused to store items, and the price is also reasonable," said Ms. Thu Huong. Also following this trend, another brand, Quay & Nuong Ki Lo, puts vacuum-sealed roasted bags in a rattan basket. This rattan basket will then continue to be used as a fashion handbag.

Mr. Nguyen Nguyen, Director of the Department of Publishing, Printing and Distribution (Ministry of Information and Communications), said that this year after the National Book Awards, many businesses and agencies also contacted him for advice on award-winning books. "They want to include award-winning books in Tet gift baskets. That is a good sign and we have also consulted immediately," Mr. Nguyen Nguyen shared. According to Mr. Nguyen, such signals show opportunities to develop a reading culture. In particular, he also said that leaders are increasingly using books as gifts.

Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Hoai Son, Standing Member of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture andEducation , said that recently it is clear that the trend of gifts, especially during holidays, has become much more diverse, attractive, polite and elegant.

"This shows that gift givers want to 'wrap culture' into gifts more. It shows that people are more aware of carefully choosing gifts to show gratitude and respect for the recipient. It also shows the diversity of gift products in terms of style, friendly trends as well as competition in the gift business. This certainly promotes creativity and improves product quality," said Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Hoai Son.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Bui Hoai Son, diversity in gift choices promotes creativity and innovation in the gift manufacturing industry, creates new business opportunities and promotes the development of enterprises. However, the most important thing is that respecting cultural items when giving gifts will help raise cultural awareness, as well as promote the cultural industry.

Most importantly, respecting cultural items when giving them away will help raise cultural awareness, as well as promote the cultural industry.

Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Hoai Son, Standing Member of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/goi-van-hoa-trong-qua-tet-185240128003445378.htm