on the day of a traditional vietnamese wedding ceremony, there is a procession and gifting by the groom’s family for the bride and her family. in the procession, the groom, his family, and his friends bear elaborately decorated lacquer boxes, swathed in red cloth. inside these boxes are gifts representative of the wealth of the groom’s family.

the boxes are handmade by layering silver foils with special hand-mixed paints. the lacquerware is the collective result of 30 operations and 20 stages, which take place over a period of 100 days.