Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam

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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.

Like 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. 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

form raucous processions and tour their neighbourhoods singing songs. You will see a male dancer wearing a round happy-face mask that symbolises the moon. He urges the lion dancers on and delights the crowd with his comical moves. This is the Earth God, who represents the fullness of the earth and reminds onlookers to give thanks for its bounty.

Lion dancing is an essential element of the Mid-autumn festivities. Groups of children gather, each carrying a red lantern. Everyone sings along to the cheerful Mid-autumn Festival songs memorized since childhood. These lion dances are fascinating, and huge numbers of children, ranging from little kids to teenagers, participate in this activity. As a result of having so many groups of children marching around, the streets of the cities echo with the sound of drums, as dozens of lions roam about. with its gaping mouth and protruding eyes, the lion is both comical and formidable.

At night, groups of children parade through the streets, going from door to door and asking the owners for their permission to perform the lion dance. If it is agreed then the children will put on a show, which is believed to bring luck and fortune. Afterward, the owners will give the children ‘lucky’ money for their gratitude.