Talking about Cot village today, many people probably immediately think of this as a village specializing in producing votive offerings with the nickname "the banking village of hell" but few know that this is also a land of learning, since ancient times it has been named the village of scholars with 10 doctors, 9 bachelors and nearly 30 village chiefs.


Cot Village (or Ke Cot) is the name of two long-standing Yen Quyet villages, Ha Yen Quyet and Thuong Yen Quyet. Vietnam buffalo travel. This used to be a rural area with a tradition of learning and mandarin examinations, located in the "four famous villages" (Mo, La, Canh, Cot) with 10 doctors and nearly 30 village officials in the Later Le period and 9 bachelors in the Nguyen period after Ve village (Dong Ngac). Cot Village in the ancient capital had a satisfactory education promotion system.

At that time, the village had a custom: set aside 3 acres of rice fields to give to those who passed the doctoral exam or higher; on the day the doctoral candidate returned home in glory, the whole village brought flags and umbrellas to welcome him and congratulated him with 100 Quan. Those who passed the bachelor's and bachelor's exams were also rewarded with land by the village. Cot village still has a communal house rebuilt in the 13th year of Minh Mang (1832); the family temple of the doctors Hoang Quan Chi, Nguyen Nhu Uyen, Nguyen Xuan Nham - a symbol of the tradition of successful learning of the villagers.

However, until now, very few people know about Cot village with the title of "village of scholars" instead of people just thinking of it as the "bank of hell" village. The reason why Cot village is associated with that nickname is also originated from the old profession of making a living of some villagers. Mrs. Nguyen Thi Huyen, a resident of Cot village, said: "People in the village have been doing this job for a long time. Since the time in Thuong Yen Quyet village, there was a profession of making paper and fans. After a while, due to the increasing tastes of the people, this profession has flourished." According to the concept of the ancients, the dead are like the living: houses, food, clothes, vehicles, and... money. That is why the burning of votive paper was born. So on the day of "pardoning the dead", the whole village is bustling with people, vehicles, and votive paper offerings (TVs, refrigerators, motorbikes... paper) being carried everywhere for consumption.

In the past, people who made votive paper offerings printed by hand had to apply ink to the mold, place paper, dry it... to produce a product. Nowadays, people only need to press the button, the votive paper making machine in Cot village is a real printing machine. In just a moment, the producer has produced tens of thousands of beautiful products. In the past, Cot village was large, making all kinds of votive paper offerings, from traditional sacrificial items such as horses, hats, shoes... to modern objects such as computers, cars, motorbikes, refrigerators, televisions, and hell dollars. Each house did it differently, some stacked dollars all the way to the roof, some stacked computers. Now the village has become the city, so the houses are cramped, so the village's products have also been narrowed, cars and motorbikes have given way to paper money (traditional style) and dollars (modern style).

Currently, Cot village's hell money has been distributed to almost all the Northern provinces and even to the Central region such as Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, etc. It is not that people in these areas do not trade in hell money, but the hell money here they trade in designs, colors and materials cannot be compared to Cot village. Therefore, people still like to buy votive paper from the merchants in this hell village.

One of the most famous producers and traders of votive paper money in Cot village, said: “The family's votive paper products were previously mainly consumed at Dong Xuan market, but now they have expanded to other provinces and cities across the country. Currently, the number of workers making votive paper and printing at home is about a dozen people. Talking about the printing formula, the family has inherited it from their ancestors for three generations. Nowadays, there are modern machines to support, but the final steps still have to be done manually, such as cutting and trimming. This item is spiritual, in the past, many families in Cot village made and developed it, but now it has almost disappeared, many families have given up the profession to switch to other businesses with higher income. Currently, the village has only a dozen households still doing the job and they are always trying to preserve and promote the profession.”

She added: “The difficulty of this votive paper making business is the output of the products, selling a lot of products only on the 15th of the 7th lunar month every year and on the occasion of Lunar New Year. During the year, people only buy on the 15th and 1st of the lunar month to worship at home or go to the temple... Therefore, maintaining the salary for workers is difficult, while the capital outlay is also relatively large, causing people in this profession to always have to think to find a way to retain workers and sell products...".

Source: https://buffalovietnamtravel.com/tra...-in-hanoi.aspx