HO CHI MINH CITY, June 20-- Near an age-old Chinese- built pagoda in this Vietnam's economic hub, a slender old lady sits on a rusty plastic chair, skillfully sewing a colorful sachet. She is the last Chinese Vietnamese maker of traditional scented bags designated for the Dragon Boat Festival.

Prior to the festival, "Doan ngo" in Vietnamese, or Double Five Festival which falls on the 5th of the fifth lunar month (on June 20, 2015), in an alley near the ancient pagoda dedicated to the East Asian deity of mercy, Guanyin, in Ho Chi Minh City's District 5, Ly Lien, 78, uses needles and colored threads to meticulously make lucky sachets.

A sachet is usually a small cloth bag filled with dried, naturally fragrant materials and herbs, mainly used to repel insects, ward off evil, and bring about luck. In China, in the Han Dynasty, sachets were worn by both boys and girls; and in the Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty, they gradually became preferred by women. In the Qing Dynasty, a scented bag became a love token.

Because making sachets is totally manual, the elderly lady Ly Lien, though very industrious, manages to turn out some 130 units a year. Most of the sachets are in the shape of peaches, zongzi ( sticky rice treats wrapped in bamboo leaves), globes and flower baskets. They contain many kinds of fragrant herbs such as nard, angelica and conioselinum univitatim.

On June 16, Ly Lien started selling lucky scented bags, priced at 15,000-18,000 Vietnamese dong (0.7-0.8 U.S. dollars) each. Many people came to her makeshift stall, contemplating the fruit of her meticulous labor. Her customers are not only faithful elderly ones, but also youths and teenagers, which makes her really happy.

"I am very happy. Not because my sachets sell like hot cakes. Just because I realize that young people also respect traditional culture," Ly Lien said.

During the Dragon Boat Festival, people often eat zongzi, drink realgar wine and race dragon boats. The festival has been long marked culturally in China. It is unofficially observed by Chinese communities in Southeast Asia countries, including Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia.

Chinese and Vietnamese people widely believe that the festival commemorates the death of Chinese poet and minister Qu Yuan of the ancient state of Chu during the Warring States period. When the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu opposed the alliance, so he was banished, even accused of treason. During his exile, Qu wrote many poems.

Twenty-seven years later, when Qin defeated Chu, Qu committed suicide by drowning himself in a river.

Local people raced out in their boats to save Qu, which is said to be the origin of dragon boat races. When failing to find his body, they dropped balls of sticky rice into the river so that fish would eat them instead of Qu's body, which is believed to be the origin of zongzi.

However, the way of celebrating the festival in Vietnam is different from that in China. The fifth lunar month is a time of transition from spring to summer, traditionally a time when there were disease and outbreaks. In the past, to prevent diseases, Vietnamese people organized insect-killing activities.

Nowadays, Vietnamese people often celebrate the festival by drinking or eating something which they believe may help improve health and kill worms. Many Vietnamese people eat fermented sticky rice in the early morning of the festive day.

Dao Dieu Binh, a Vietnamese woman of Chinese origin who specializes in researching Chinese customs of the Chinese community in Ho Chi Minh City, stated that the Dragon Boat Festival of Chinese people is becoming more and more boring. The festival sees fewer dragon boat races, and fewer traditional dishes, drinks and objects like hand-made sachets. Such items are now mass produced on an industrial scale, she said.

Both Dao Dieu Binh and Ly Lien said although the festival is still celebrated everywhere, it is hard to preserve traditional features of the festival such as manually making and wearing hand- made sachets.

"Now, youngsters are not interested in making sachets manually because it requires patience and industriousness, but doesn't produce great quantities," Ly Lien said.

Ly Lien's parents from the Chinese province of Guangdong came to Ho Chi Minh City decades ago. At a young age, she worked as a tailor.

When growing old, she started to sell traditional cakes and to learn how to make sachets from an unmarried lady named Ngoc Ba. Her mentor died in 2011 at the age of 93.

Like her mentor, Ly Lien has decided to remain single for the rest of her life. "Due to my fragile stature, I would like to lead a life of a maiden aunt," she said.

Dao Dieu Binh said that Ly Lien is the last person who makes traditional sachets by hand. Social organizations need to pay due attention to artisans like Ly Lien, helping them to have disciples so that they can preserve traditional handicraft, Binh said.

Sitting on a light blue plastic chair, and wearing a light blue blouse, Ly Lien is as busy as a bee, sewing lucky sachets. When a teenager approaches her makeshift stall, she blossoms into a warm smile, with her compassionate eyes lighting up with joy and hope.