On August 3, a photo of a foreign man holding a paper horse (votive paper) standing at Noi Bai airport was widely spread on Vietnamese social networks.
Many people find it funny that the man bought a gift for his daughter without knowing it was something to burn for the deceased.
According to the reporter’s research People, this man is Arnaud Zein El Din (44 years old, from Mexico), an architect and blogger. Mr. Arnaud just had his first visit to Hanoi and stayed for 3 weeks to explore the city.
When contacted by the reporter, the tourist had already arrived in France. Mr. Arnaud also just found out that he has just become famous on Vietnamese social networks by a photo taken by someone.
The image of Mr. Arnaud Zein El Din holding a votive horse at Noi Bai airport was spread on social networks.
“I bought that horse for 100,000 VND in a neighborhood in Hanoi. Just because I came across it by chance and found it beautiful. I guess it has more meaning, like for a ceremony,” he said. share.
The votive horse is part of a plan to “gather” randomly many items that Arnaud Zein El Din encountered in Hanoi. He showed reporters his “collection”, including a mortar hat, a plow, a sedge mat, a beer glass, a mask, a fishing bag… even a bowl full of rice was also included. collection.
“There were no suggestions, I just went for a walk and instinctively chose,” Arnaud said, adding that Hanoi is a beautiful city that “stolen his heart”.
The collection that Arnaud Zein El Din collected in Hanoi (Photo: NVCC).
The male tourist then brought the paper horse and the above items to Noi Bai airport to leave Vietnam. He carried the horse through the check-in counter and security checkpoint. However, upon entering the plane, the airline’s staff adamantly refused to transport the paper horse.
“I had to leave the horse at the airport,” he said.
The votive horse passed the check-in counter and security door, but was refused to bring it on the plane (Photo: NVCC).
Arnaud Zein El Din said that when he left Vietnam, he realized that his horse was a “votive item”, made and burned as an offering to the saints for good luck.
“The world is full of wonderful traditions and cultural practices. I wanted to create a collection of all these real elements, all from the same planet and all a little different. It opposes the trend of globalization to equate culture”, the architect shared.
With the remaining items collected from Vietnam, Mr. Arnaud will take a photo, note the weight, size, story, material… and keep it in his home in Mexico.
