Harvest Moon Festival - Tet Trung Thu

When I lived in Germany's most fertile neighborhood, I remember seeing children carrying lanterns in early October, and I thought it was just a precursor to Halloween, tamed down for preschoolers. I was later corrected: it was borrowed from the Asian communities living in Berlin. This year, on a warm Sat. night in early October, I got to experience the full Vietnamese version of the Harvest Moon Festival (also translated as Children's New Year and other variations) in Hanoi's Old Quarter.

Earlier in the evening/afternoon, children had been out with their candle-lit lanterns, but by the time I arrived at the entrance to the night market--a pedestrian-only shopping zone for locals and tourists on the weekends--it was completely overwhelmed with student revelers, decked out in punker wigs, lit-up devil's horns, and other off-the-shelf costumes. Noisemakers, balloons, street food, and more were all extras to the usual shoulder-to-shoulder night. A couple of the temples had programs for kids with songs, gongs, and lanterns. A few groups had the bright idea to form conga lines and race through the masses to clear a path. I eventually waded to the shores of the Old Quarter to wander home. And I never saw the moon, come to think of it.

Click this photo (below) to go to my Picasa album (about 24 pictures):

2009 1003 Harvest Moon Festival