Young people in southern Vietnam have taken up watermelon carving as transforming meaningful art and calligraphy into extra cash ahead of the country’s Lunar New Year holiday.

As the country prepares for a week-long public holiday next month in celebration of the Lunar New Year (Tet), young people in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang are gearing up for another watermelon carving season.

Down a small alley in the province’s My Tho City, a group of young friends carefully dig razor-sharp knives into watermelons, peeling away thin layers of dark green rind and crafting animals and calligraphic letters from the fruit.

The group’s carved watermelons cost between VND500,000 (US$22) and VND700,000 ($31), depending on size and delicacy of the artwork.

The decorative watermelons are a hot product for local Vietnamese families looking for something different to add to their traditional offerings and ornamental displays during the Tet holiday.

Despite having only been introduced to the art a few months ago, 19-year-old Nguyen Hoa Van’s knowledge of art and calligraphy has earned him a reputation as one of the brightest craftsmen in the workshop.

Van’s carved watermelons can be sold for up to five times their original price, netting the young artisan VND1 million a day during the last few days leading up to Tet.

His instructor Phan Thi Kim Thoa, 55, says that only watermelons with a smooth, even rind and overall symmetrical shape are qualified to be transformed into works of art with high esthetic value.

Many of the 50 to 60 craftsmen, mainly youths, in Thoa’s group entered the practice simply to earn extra income before the upcoming holiday.

“It typically takes about ten attempts before they are able to produce sellable watermelons,” Thoa said.

Meanwhile, 55-year-old Bao Chau, a member of the collective, fell into the art as a way of relaxing after her yoga lessons.

“I don’t know if I can make money out of this but I will definitely carve a pair of watermelons for my family this Lunar New Year holiday,” Chau said.

Watermelon carving has become so popular that even at Tien Giang University a club has operated for the past five years as an outlet for its ten core members, most of whom are students from the faculty of arts and calligraphy, to pursue the art.

“We usually work from the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth of the twelfth lunar month until Lunar New Year’s Eve,” said club president Truong Tran Phuong. “Each year we produce between five and six metric tons of carved watermelons and divvy our profits into VND2-3 million [$88-132] per member.”

YouTube footage of a watermelon being carved into Vietnamese calligraphy

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