Hanoians are flocking to buy worship items for the Kitchen God’s day, which will fall on Saturday, February 6.

Hang Ma is the street where sacred papers are sold and it entered its busy period around one month ago. The street is decorated in red and yellow, the colors of traditional sacred paper products.

Hang Ma’s salesmen said that prices for paper items this year have risen by 10-20 percent over last year but customers don’t seem to care because they buy these things to offer to the gods and their ancestors.

A set of offerings to the Kitchen God comprises three hats, three set of clothes, three carps and is is priced at 45,000-90,000 dong, depending on size and materials.

Alongside fake money that is burned shops in Hang Ma, Luong Van Can and some markets also sell modern items like paper TVs, cell phones and computers. There are even iPhones sold at 30,000 dong. The price for a car is from 100,000 to 250,000 dong and from 100,000 to 150,000 dong for a motorbike.

Yen, a salesgirl in Hang Ma street, said that these products are for traders or people of high social positions. “We don’t produce these things in mass because they are complicated products,” she said.

Lan Chi, the owner of a small company in Hanoi, bought a car offering in Hang Ma street for the Kitchen God’s Day. Besides clothes, hats, carps for the Kitchen’s God, she also bought money, gold, handheld phones, cameras, five motorbikes, two bicycles, and a Mercedes for her ancestors. “I hope that dead people can also have a good Tet festival,” she said.

The day the Kitchen’s God goes to the heaven to report to God is considered as the first day of the lunar New Year or Tet. After seeing the Kitchen’s God to heaven, Vietnamese people begin cleaning up and decorating their houses to welcome Tet.

As Tet is approaches, artificial flower shops in Ham Long, Hang Luoc and Hang Ruoi are also crowded. Artificial flowers are shown off on the pavements and roads. These products are sourced from Nam Dinh province, HCM City and also from China and Taiwan.

Hanoians shopping for the Day of the Kitchen God:

PV