In Vietnam as well as in some other Asian countries, on every full moon day of the 8th lunar month, the day when the moon is roundest and most beautiful, the Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated with many activities imbued with national cultural characteristics.
1. Mooncakes
When mentioning the Mid-Autumn Festival, it is impossible not to mention baked cakes and sticky rice cakes. These are two types of cakes that Vietnamese people buy to burn incense on the ancestral altar and also use as gifts to visit each other every autumn. It symbolizes reunion and family ties.
2. Moon-watching and feasting
On the 14th or 15th day of the 8th lunar month, the moon-watching and feasting festival will be held. This is where children are given lanterns and beautiful clothes by their parents to go and feast on the moon night. The Mid-Autumn Festival tray is beautifully decorated with many kinds of candies and fruits arranged in many different shapes, and especially indispensable are moon cakes, sticky rice cakes, pomelos.
3. Lion Dance
Coming to Vietnam in the 8th lunar month, you will have the opportunity to enjoy a crowded, bustling Vietnamese street filled with the drumbeats of lion dance troupes. Large restaurants often hang bonuses and lion dance teams perform and win prizes. The bustling atmosphere fills the streets and even the countryside.
4. Lantern Procession
“Mid-Autumn Festival, carrying star lanterns…” This song has been imprinted in the minds of every Vietnamese child. Every Mid-Autumn Festival, their parents buy them lanterns to follow the lion dance troupes. Lanterns light up every road every autumn, from remote countryside to crowded cities. Mid-Autumn Festival is also an occasion for children to receive recognition for their academic achievements and rewards from many organizations such as the agencies where their parents work for or the residential groups where their family belongs to.
5. Hang and Cuoi
These are certainly two indispensable characters during the Mid-Autumn Festival. The image of the beautiful lady, Miss Hằng (The Moon Lady), standing next to Cuội (The Moon Boy) in a brown shirt, holding a palm-leaf fan is very familiar to many Vietnamese people. The MC in Mid-Autumn Festival programs often disguise themselves as Miss Hang and Cuoi to have fun with the children.
The eighth lunar month is back, autumn and the Mid-Autumn Festival often bring many emotions to Vietnamese people.
(source: VOV)
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