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Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam
In Vietnam, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a festival mainly for the Children. Various activities are held to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam. This year, due to the social distancing, the festival cannot be held. However, let’s find some information about this festival.
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ike many other Asian countries, the Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam is also a traditional event to celebrate the biggest fullmoon in the year. Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month in the lunar calendar. It is also the time that annual summer harvest time ends, thus people call it an East Asian harvest festival. On this special day, all the members of the family gather and prepare various sweets, fruits and they also prepare colourful lanterns and wear many funny masks.
In the weeks before the festival, you will see and hear groups of lion dancers practicing on the streets. Mooncake stalls appear on every other corner, pop-ups with elaborately decorated boxes filled with a variety of mystery cakes and fillings. City districts team up with preparations of toys, lanterns and colourful masks in anticipation. The most popular lantern is a star made with red cellophane. You’ll see these lanterns for sale on streets all over Vietnam in the days leading up to the festival.
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All across Vietnam, families welcome the festival by placing a five-fruit tray and cakes on our ancestral altar. They offer food to their ancestors and worship, before feasting on mooncakes - usually outside under the light of the moon. Round or square, these cakes are moulded with elaborate details of flowers, carp and geometric patterns. The two most common types are banh deo (soft, sticky cakes with a mochitexture) and banh nuong (baked cakes with a thick wheat crust). Mooncakes in Vietnam come in a seemingly infinite variety of flavours, both sweet and savoury. Feel free to buy a box of mooncakes to enjoy yourself, or to share with your Vietnamese friends and hosts. On the night of the full moon, children bearing brightly coloured lanterns
