The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most exciting and popular holidays for Vietnamese families. It’s also called the “Children’s Festival” and it’s celebrated when the moon is the brightest in the autumn. Parents use this holiday as an opportunity to show their love and appreciation for their children.

It is held on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month annually. On this special day, Vietnamese families plan their activities around their children. In a Vietnamese folklore, parents were working so hard to prepare for the harvest that they left the children playing by themselves. To make up for lost time, parents would use the Mid-Autumn festival as an opportunity to show their love and appreciation for their children.

Appropriately, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also called the Children’s Festival. In the United States, this tradition continues in many Vietnamese-American communities. Trung-Thu activities are often centered on children and education. Parents buy lanterns for their children so that they can participate in a candlelit lantern procession at dawn. Lanterns represent brightness while the procession symbolizes success in school. Vietnamese markets sell a variety of lanterns, but the most popular children’s lantern is the star lantern. Other children’s activities include arts and crafts in which children make face masks and lanterns. Children also perform traditional Vietnamese dances for adults and participate in contests for prizes and scholarships. Unicorn dancers are also very popular in this festival.

Like the Chinese, Vietnamese parents tell their children fairy tales and serve mooncakes and other special treats under the silvery moon. A favorite folklore is about a carp that wanted to become a dragon. The carp worked and worked and eventually transformed itself into a dragon. This is the story behind the mythical symbol, Cá hóa Rồng. Parents use this story to encourage their children to work hard so that they can become whatever they want to be.

There’s also a story about how the Moon Lady ascended to the moon. A man named Chu Coi found a lucky tree that had special healing powers. Because this tree was sacred, people were forbidden to urinate at the foot of this tree. Unfortunately, Chu Coi’s wife, Chi Hang forgot the rule and urinated on the tree. On day, while she was sitting on the tree’s branch, the tree started to grow and grow. Eventually, it reached the moon and since then, Chi Hang lived on the moon for the rest of her life as a punishment for desecrating the sacred tree.

It can be said that the meaning of Mid-Autumn Festival has changed over time. Originally, it’s not a special day for children, but for adult. Today, it’s Children’s Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival is still a meaningful tradition. It’s the sense of caring, of gratitude, of friendship, of family gathering, and of showing the love.  We – Vietnamese citizens should maintain and develop this noble sense.