Workshop «Lồng đèn ông sao» (star lantern making)

   The five-pointed lantern of split bamboo and coloured cellophane is an image almost every Vietnamese carries out of childhood, yet far fewer people have ever built one. For a single day in mid-September, Lá Nhà Garden opens its workshop so you can glue your own and take it home to light.

   The session follows the real order of the craft: build the frame, stretch the cellophane, glue it down and decorate it in the colours you choose. No prior skill is asked for, only a steady hand — that is the organisers' promise, and the reason they put the line keeping the spirit of a traditional Mid-Autumn on the poster.

   Worth knowing before you book:

• — Five sessions run through the day, from morning to evening, so a family can pick the hour that fits
• — You leave with one finished star lantern of your own
• — It is built for families, groups of friends and children, and needs no experience
• — Places in each session are limited, because this is a small studio and not a hall

   Lá Nhà Garden is a green space given over to plants, botanical art and workshops, so the afternoon feels closer to time spent in a garden than to a craft class. The studio also takes bookings for private workshops for companies, schools and events.

   A lantern bought on the street is pretty and cheap, but the one a child glued themselves is the one still remembered next year. An afternoon is enough to get it.