"Coffin Street" in Hai Duong City

Special profession

There is a profession that no one wishes for good business, a profession that customers order but do not receive, and have to refund, so they are even happier to congratulate the customer. That can only be the profession of sewing the last "clothes" for the dead - the profession of making coffins on Mac Thi Buoi street (Hai Duong city).

From Thong Nhat Square, turn to Mac Thi Buoi Street, opposite the back of the old commercial center, and you will see that most of this street is used for coffin making.

The coffin-making profession has existed for a long time. In 2000, when some households on Thong Nhat Street had their land taken back to build a commercial center and were compensated for resettlement here, the profession continued to develop on this street. There are some people on the street who have been making coffins for many years. To date, some have passed away, but Mr. Binh and Mr. Nghiem still stick with this unique and special profession.

From the front, this street is small under the green dracontomelon trees with a few modest, old coffin shops. Asking around, I learned that behind it is Truong My Street, which opens up to spacious coffin factories serving these shops.

Visiting Mr. Doan Van Nghiem's ​​shop, I saw coffins, caskets, coffins and countless funeral items lined up inside and out. Mr. Nghiem has been making coffins for over 30 years, and now his son has taken over his father's business.

Looking back to 1992 and 1993, when the government stopped providing coffins, Mr. Nghiem grasped the market demand and started making coffins to serve the people's needs. At that time, there were many workers from the district working for the carpentry cooperative on Thong Nhat Street.

"At that time, making coffins was very simple, there were many types of wood, the price was only a few hundred thousand, equivalent to about 1 tael of gold/coffin. In the past, many old people and sick people ordered coffins in advance or ordered them for their relatives, but after they recovered, they did not come to pick them up. I had to return the money and felt very happy, and even congratulated them. In this profession, when Tet comes, relatives come, but they only wish them good health, no one dares to wish them good luck in business," Mr. Nghiem said, laughing.

The service and customer care of the profession is also special. When customers come to buy goods, they should not be too enthusiastic but should sympathize and share because they have just lost a loved one. In his memories of decades of making and selling coffins, Mr. Nghiem remembers someone coming to his house to buy a coffin and still had tears in his eyes. Mr. Nghiem said that when he sold to people, he was sad, not happy. He only asked for their age, guessed their size and then sold them. There were enough sizes and types for people who had to be buried or cremated, and there were also special sizes to order.

In the past, when customers had a need, Mr. Nghiem also helped exhume graves and place bodies in coffins. Having fought on the battlefield, facing death, Mr. Nghiem has boldly done this job for the past several decades.

Elaborate

Near Mr. Nghiem's ​​house is Mr. Vu Van Binh's house, who has also been making coffins for many years on this street. Mr. Binh comes from a family of carpenters. His father was from Dong Giao carpentry village in Luong Dien commune (Cam Giang), he came to Thong Nhat street to work and contributed to the development of carpentry here. But it was Mr. Binh's generation that the coffin making profession developed the most. While the profession of making tables, chairs, beds and cabinets is difficult to compete with, the coffin making profession on Mac Thi Buoi street is still standing strong.

In the past, coffins were simply made of 4 long panels and 2 short panels, made of all kinds of wood. Nowadays, according to the needs and improvements in life, the needs for coffins are also different.

"Making coffins now is very different from the past, there are many improvements. In the past, they were just square and sharp, now they are elaborately carved, high-class and diverse," Mr. Binh shared.

From 4 panels, 2 ends are square and sharp, coffins now mostly have a beautiful decorative raised roof. The walls are thicker, the roof panel on top sometimes has to be 10 cm thick to withstand the compression force during burial, the length, width, and weight are also much larger than in the past.

To make a finished coffin, Mr. Binh is careful from the wood selection stage. Wood for coffins is usually made from rosewood. For higher quality, there are yellow heartwood, do wood, and agarwood which are very fragrant. Whatever wood people order, Mr. Binh must make it with the right wood.

After selecting the wood, he hired someone to saw it into panels and then brought it back to Mr. Binh's workshop to process it smoothly. Through the hands of skilled workers, the panels were joined together with wooden joints very firmly, without the need for nails.

The carvings on coffins are now also diverse. Usually, if the deceased is a woman, lotus flowers are carved, if a man is a dragon, they are carved. The two ends of the coffin are engraved with longevity characters, the round longevity character indicating the head, the square longevity character indicating the feet. After that, the carpenter sprays paint, many people prefer to keep the original wood color, so they just spray a clear oil to create the final "clothes" for the deceased.

Good wood is usually bright, solid over time, and slow to decompose. Coffins are now also decorated with decals for solemnity. The price of coffins and coffins mainly differs based on the type of wood, ranging from 7 million to 60 million VND.

As for the coffins and urns placed inside, there are also many varieties. The normal porcelain and earthenware types are cheap and simple, while the terracotta types from Bat Trang pottery village have very sophisticated, elaborate, and sharp designs and are also much more expensive.

"Doing this job requires carefulness and skill in both skill and heart. Whatever type of wood people order, we have to use that type of wood, and do it meticulously. Family members may not be able to tell the difference, but our heart does not allow us to do otherwise," Mr. Binh confided.

The profession of "sewing clothes for the deceased" on Thong Nhat Street, now moved to Mac Thi Buoi Street, has supported many generations of people here. Until now, the next generations have continued like Mr. Binh's family, all sons, daughters, daughters-in-law, and sons-in-law have inherited their father's profession.

From just making coffins, his children opened a full-package funeral service and were also the first full-package funeral service unit in Hai Duong, serving both inside and outside the province. The person in charge of the ceremony, meals, flower arrangements, car care... During the time of mourning, whatever the family needed and could be supported, Mr. Nghiem's ​​children would do. From bathing the deceased to putting them in the coffin, cremating and burying them, taking photos, filming the funeral... Only when the deceased's work was finished, did Mr. Binh's children stop their duties.

Mr. Vu Van Hung, Mr. Binh's son, said: "The job of making coffins and organizing complete funerals also has many and diverse needs. I do this job with all my heart and soul for the deceased, so it depends on the conditions and wishes of the family. If the family does not have the financial means, I only tell them to do the necessary procedures, sometimes even reduce the cost and support them more."

The typical hardship of the funeral profession is late at night and early in the morning, so almost no one in the neighborhood dares to turn off their phone, even when sleeping, the phone is always next to them. When there is a death, the whole family works together to arrange each person's own task to take care of the deceased.

During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2022, Ms. Pham Hong Nguyen, Mr. Binh's daughter-in-law, still remembered a text message when a younger brother taking care of her father in the hospital recognized her voice in the morgue in a tight protective suit working next to a coffin. The younger brother immediately took a photo, texted her saying he admired her so much and "wished the warrior good health".

So we can see that coffin making is not just a normal craft but also requires a lot of dedication and care for the job and for people. That is also the common belief of those who are making coffins on Mac Thi Buoi street until today. They always remind themselves that doing well will bring long-term blessings.