Recently, we had the opportunity to visit Yen Duc (Dong Trieu Town), a rich countryside with the cultural characteristics of the Northern countryside, which is also the place with the traditional broom making profession from areca palm leaves, coconut leaves, and straw to make areca palm brooms, coconut brooms, and straw brooms. Since traveling to the village, the broom making experience has been loved by tourists, so the broom making profession in this countryside has gradually been "revived".
The village craftsmen
Like many other peaceful Northern villages, Yen Duc has the rustic, simple beauty of rice fields stretching as far as the eye can see, green bamboo groves, and straight rows of areca trees stretching in the sun, swaying in the cool breeze.
According to the elders in the village, in the past, people in Yen Duc commune mainly grew rice and households also maintained the traditional broom making profession for many generations. However, because this profession requires meticulousness, perseverance, is quite hard but the income is low, over time, the young people in the village no longer follow the profession, only a few elderly people still maintain the traditional profession. Gradually, the number of households maintaining this profession is decreasing day by day.
Mrs. Bui Thi Man’s family in Yen Duc commune has been involved in the broom making profession for decades. Mrs. Man shared: “I have been weaving brooms since I was 10 years old. From my great-grandfather, grandparents, parents to our generation, we have maintained the profession. In the past, children in the family were taught the profession from a young age, but now few young people want to follow this profession.”
To make straw brooms, we must choose straw from glutinous rice plants because the fibers of glutinous rice straw are tougher and have a golden color, making the brooms more beautiful. The straw is dried in the sun for about 3-4 days, then the hard core of the straw is extracted and tied into small clusters, each cluster is called a straw. Every 5 straws like that are combined to make a broom.
Depending on the size of the broom, the straw has a corresponding size. The top of the rice flower is kept to make the broom body. The broom handle is created by taking two straw strands and twisting them together, then braiding them around each straw. Gradually join 5 straws together firmly and braid evenly to make the broom beautiful and durable.
The last straw at the end of the broom will be braided by Mrs. Man to make a hook. Normally, for a skilled person, it will take 2 days to make a large broom, and about 15-20 minutes to make a small broom.
Also involved in the broom making profession, Ms. Cao Thi Lien in Yen Khanh village mainly makes coconut brooms and areca brooms. Early in the day, she takes advantage of the time when the sun is not too hot to go around the village to collect areca leaves and dry coconut leaves that have fallen to the ground or cut down low-hanging coconut leaves to bring home to make brooms.
To make a broom, depending on the type, it must go through 6-7 completely manual steps. With areca and coconut brooms, the process is similar. Areca and coconut leaves must be trimmed to remove the midrib, and smoothed to make a broom. Usually, a coconut broom needs 7-8 leaves combined to be enough. After that, it will be dried in the sun for 2-3 days until completely dry, then bundled into a broom.
Ms. Lien shared: The most difficult step in making a broom is to use rubber bands to tightly wrap the broom handle so that it is round. With areca brooms, the areca tree is usually very tall, and only the areca leaves that have fallen to the base and are dry can be collected, so the process of separating the leaves to get the leaf core will be a bit more difficult and difficult. When tying, it is important to arrange the leaves so that the belly of the leaves face down and there is a spread between the leaves to make it easier to sweep.
Despite the hardship, Ms. Lien is very passionate about this job. The job brings her a little income and joy. And she also passed on the job to her daughter with the hope of continuing to preserve the village's profession.
Opportunity to "revive" traditional professions
From the risk of extinction, the broom making profession has had the opportunity to “revive” when from 2013 to now, Yen Duc commune has developed a model of community tourism and experiential tourism. Some households have cooperated with travel companies to preserve and promote traditional craft villages to serve tourists, including broom making.
As one of the pioneering households in developing the community tourism model, Mrs. Bui Thi Man's house has also become a destination for visitors who want to learn and experience how to make different types of brooms.
Ms. Man happily shared: "Thanks to community tourism, I have the opportunity to introduce broom making to not only domestic tourists but especially foreign visitors so that they can better understand the culture and traditional profession of Yen Duc village. Along with that, I myself also have a more stable source of income."
After the broom making experience, Nguyen Ha Linh, a tourist from Hanoi , excitedly said: “I have known about straw brooms, but this is the first time I have seen how these brooms are made and even tied them myself. It is a very interesting and memorable feeling.”
Brooms in Yen Duc are made from the available materials of the village and the hands, ingenuity and perseverance of farmers who work hard from dawn to dusk. Broom products not only serve the needs of local people but are also ordered by many neighboring localities, becoming a familiar item in the daily life of rice farmers .
Broom making in Yen Duc is developing into an attractive tourism product for tourists. It is also a way to promote and preserve the beauty of a traditional profession, associated with the development of craft village tourism, thereby creating more livelihoods for local people.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong, a native of Yen Duc and also a tour guide at Yen Duc Village Tourist Area, shared: With the desire to preserve the traditional broom making craft of the village and bring new experiences to tourists when coming to Yen Duc village, the community tourism model associated with the experience of traditional broom making was introduced to tourists and is loved by tourists from all over the world, especially foreign tourists. We are also very happy to be able to preserve and introduce the cultural values of our hometown's traditional craft village.
Thanks to "joining hands" with tourism, the broom making profession in Yen Duc has gradually revived, creating a new development direction for the locality, attracting people to maintain the craft village and beautify the countryside where they live.
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