Mid-Autumn Festival eat cake, drink tea, enjoy the moon!

Mid-Autumn Festival is the middle of autumn. Mid-Autumn Festival as the name suggests is the mid-autumn day, that is, on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar.

According to archaeologists, the Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam dates back to ancient times and was printed on Ngoc Lu bronze drums. According to the Doi pagoda epitaph in 1121, since the Ly dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival was officially held in Thang Long citadel with boat races, water puppet shows and lantern processions. During the Le - Trinh dynasties, the Mid-Autumn Festival was held extremely lavishly in the Lord's Palace as described by "Tang Thuong Ngau Luc".

Scholar P.Giran (in Magiet Religion, Paris, 1912) when researching the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival, pointed out that since ancient times, in East Asia, people have valued the Moon and the Sun as a couple. They believe that the Moon reunites with the Sun only once a month (at the end of the moon phase). Then, from the light of her husband, the contented moon girl came out and gradually received sunlight - becoming a new moon, a full moon, and then going into a new cycle. Therefore, the moon is negative, indicating female and conjugal life. And on the full moon day of August, the moon is the most beautiful, the most splendid, so the folk celebrate the festival to celebrate the new year. According to the book "Thai Binh Hoan Vu Ky", "Lac Viet people hold festivals every autumn and August, boys and girls make love and get married if they like each other". Thus, autumn is the season of marriage.

Vietnam is an agricultural country, so on the occasion of August when the planting is finished, the weather calms down, it is the time when "everything is at ease" (Doi Pagoda stele 1121), people hold festivals to pray for the harvest, sing and enjoy the Chinese New Year. Collect.

For thousands of years, people have always believed that there is a connection between life and the moon. Full moon and waning moon, joy and sorrow, reunion, reunion or parting. Since then, the full moon is a symbol of reunion and the Mid-Autumn Festival is also called the reunion festival.

On this happy day, according to Vietnamese custom, all family members wish to gather together to make offerings to the ancestors.

When night falls, the ground is filled with golden moonlight, the villages gather together to drink green tea, eat cakes, watch the moon and display fruits and candies for children to play, procession of lights, lion dance, watch the moon, break the deck…

In addition to having fun for children and adults, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also an opportunity for people to watch the moon predict crops and national destiny. If the autumn moon is yellow, that year will hit the silkworm season, if the autumn moon is green or blue, there will be natural disasters, and if the autumn moon is bright orange, the country will prosper.

According to giadinhvietnam.com