On 11 April 2024, queues formed at markets across Hanoi for bánh trôi and bánh chay during the Hàn Thực festival. Tuyết Mai came early to buy twenty boxes for her family and workplace but still waited fifteen minutes at a trusted stall. A photograph documented customers lining up for freshly made sweets at Dịch Vọng market, with demand concentrated before 9 a.m.
Some sellers had begun work the previous night and sold more than two hundred boxes in four hours. Customers were waiting for more than a sweet. These foods are prepared once a year, on the third day of the third lunar month, including as offerings to ancestors. A shared calendar compressed demand into the same morning even after extra stalls appeared.