Daytripping around Hà Nội: Mid-Autumn Festival/Children's Day (Têt Trung Thu)

Lanterns are a big part of the Mid-Autumn festival. According to Wikipedia,

"...the legend of Cuội, whose wife accidentally urinated on a sacred banyan tree. The tree began to float towards the moon, and Cuội, trying to pull it back down to earth, floated to the moon with it, leaving him stranded there. Every year, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, children light lanterns and participate in a procession to show Cuội the way back to Earth."

So after work I headed over to Hang Ma to take in the sights and sounds of Hanoi on Tet Trung Thu, or Mid-Autumn Festival (also known as the Children' Day because of the association of children with purity, innocence, and the natural world). This is not just a thing in Vietnam, either. It's very similar, according to a coworker who had been in Korea formerly (and who is not with my center anymore, she left soon after this festival in fact), to the Korean Chuseok, which is a harvest festival. But it is the same holiday that is celebrated in China and Taiwan.

The Mid-Autumn Festival fell on a Sunday this year, which meant that I had a long day of work during daytime festivities and also that I got up very early to begin said long day of work. (I teach 4 classes, or 7 hours, on Sundays.) This is the best-case scenario of my Sunday morning... A beautiful sunrise and the hopes that the day will be grey and rainy, which softens the slog of being inside and working for a solid 12 hours.

Besides the making and hanging of lanterns, two other big parts of the festival which I did not get a chance to capture are the mooncakes (bánh trung thu), of which I was not really a fan. The savory ones seemed to usually have a hard-boiled egg in the center and the sweet ones I found to be nice but kind of bland. Apparently there are two different kinds, the bánh nướng and the bánh dẻo. I tried several of the bánh nướng which uses a wheat crust and and an egg wash to get that golden-brown color, usually baked in a mold to get intricate patterns on the top. The other variety, bánh dẻo, I did not try so I can't attest to its taste.

The other big part of the festival which sadly I did not get to capture although I did see was the dancing lion. Usually these are kids under a lion costume and apparently the tradition goes in Vietnam that the kids will go to door to door and ask to dance for the homeowners, who will then give them some "lucky money" (a small amount of money in a red envelope). It supposedly brings luck to the homeowners. I did some dancing lions although I didn't see them go door to door, they were just living it up on Hang Ma street, apparently just like everyone in Hanoi was. Witness, the mob scene:

The 5-point star is a traditional lantern shape.

Giant lit up pillar in the street depicting Hanoi scenes.

Balloons, balloons everywhere.

Mostly I will remember mid-Autumn festival as the time ILA made us make lanterns with every single student in every single class, with only about 5 staples to share between the whole staff. A very nice idea whose planning and execution left something to be desired.