In Vietnam, Têt-Trung-Thu (tet-troong-thoo) or the Mid-Autumn Festival
is one of the most popular family holidays. It is held on the 15th day of the 8th lunar
month.
Vietnamese families plan their activities around their children on this special
day. 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 around 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 Trung-Thu festivities.
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
Rông.
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, Since then, Chi Hang lived on the moon for the rest of her life as a punishment for
desecrating the sacred tree.
