mid-autumn festival in vietnam

Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HCMC

INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY – SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

Vietnamese History and Culture course

Academic year 9/2014


Research Paper

(Due date:19/12/2014)

Student: Quách Thị Thuỳ Linh

Email: [email protected]

Course Coordinator: Mr. Vo Van Sen

Quách Th Thuỳ Linh – BABAIU13128ị


CONTENTS

1. Meaning of the Mid-Autumn Festival ……...………………………………….4

1.2 . Legend of the Festival ………………………………………….....4

1.3 Origins and Development …………………………………………..5

2. Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam………..……………………………………..6

2.1 Lantern festival………………………………………………..……..6

2.2 Moon cakes…………………………………………………....…….7

2.3 “Tò he” …………………………………………………....…………7

2.4 Folk song singing contest……………………………………….…...7

2.5 Lion dance…………………………………………………………...8

2.6 Courtship and match making………………………………………....8

3. Conclusion……………………………………………………………....……….9

4. Refferences………………………………………………...………………...….10

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In Vietnam the Mid-Autumn Festival, known as Tet Trung Thu in Vietnamese, is the country’s second most important holiday, after Tet -the Vietnamese New Year... The Mid-Autumn festival dates back to the Rice Civilization of the Red River delta, over 4,000 years ago. It is fantastic and charming with its history. It is held on the 15th day on the 8th lunar month (often in late September or early October) in the middle of autumn and it is celebrated for a whole day. On this day, the adults and the parents prepare many different foods - Moon cakes, candies, biscuits, jellies, and fruit, such as grapefruit, longan fruit, bananas, apples, mango, etc. All of them are designed with fun symbols, for example: dog, cat, mouse . It is a harvest festival celebrated by Vietnamese people, as they believed that the celebration would bring them a plentiful harvest the next year.



I. Meaning of the festival

The meaning of Mid-Autumn Day is rather different to that in China, though the Vietnamese also celebrate it and eat mooncakes. In Vietnam the Mid-Autumn Festival is the happiest day for children, during which parents buy their children various kinds of lanterns and snacks.

As for origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam, it’s totally different from the Chinese version (Chang E Flying to the Moon). Rice is harvested before the 15th of the eighth lunar month in Vietnam. Each household then offers sacrifices to the God of Earth. While occupied with harvesting parents have not so much time to take care of their children, therefore they make full use of the festival holiday to play with their children.

1. Legends:

In a very distant past, ten suns had risen together to the heavens, thus causing hardship for the people. The archer Yi shot down nine of them and was given the elixir of immortality as a reward, but he did not consume it as he did not want to gain immortality without his beloved wife Chang'e (Vietnamese: Hằng Nga). However, while Yi went out hunting, Fengmeng broke into his house and forced Chang'e to give up the elixir of immortality to him, but she refused to do so.[1] Instead, Chang'e drank it and flew upwards towards the heavens, choosing the moon as residence to be nearby her beloved husband. Yi discovered what had transpired and felt sad, so he displayed the fruits and cakes that his wife Chang'e had liked, and gave sacrifices to her. That is the legend of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival.

Aside from the story of Chang'e, there are two other popular folktales associated with the festival. The first describes 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.[21] The other tale involves a carp who wanted to become a dragon, and as a result, worked hard throughout the year until he was able to transform himself into a dragon.



1.2 Origins and developement:

This tradition of celebrating the Mid-autumn Festival began since the Duong Minh Hoang era in China, at the beginning of the 8th century (713-755).

According to ancient manuscripts, on the eve of the 15th day in the 8th month, while the Emperor Duong and his mandarins gazed at the moon, the Emperor wished that if only he could visit the Palace on the Moon. A magician named Dieu Phap Thien (also known as La Cong Vien) offered to take the Emperor to the moon by performing a number of magic tricks.

Upon arriving at the Moon Palace, the Emperor Minh Hoang was welcomed by a Fairy God who prepared a banquet and entertained the Emperor Duong. There were hundreds of beautiful fairies wearing the thin silk gaudy clothes, each of them held a long white silk piece in hand, threw it into the air, danced, and sang in the court, this dance and song is called the Nghe Thuong Vu Y (Nghe Thuong Cloth Dance).The Emperor enjoyed this dance very much. Since the Emperor had an aptitude for music, he showed a keen interest and admiration for the dance, while at the same time trying to memorize the fairy song and dance by heart. The Emperor wanted to bring this song and dance back to the Imperial Palace for entertainment.At the end of that year, a Governor ruling over the Tay Luong Country brought with him a group of female dancers who performed the Ba-la-mon dance.

The Emperor discovered that this Ba-la-mon dancing style shared a lot of similarities to Nghe Thuong Vu Y dance and song. He combined the two songs and dances styles into one, and called it the Nghe Thuong Dance and Cloth Style.Later, the mandarins adopted the Nghe Thuong Dance and Cloth style from their Emperor, took this song and dance style and gradually introduced it to everyone in their far ruling countries. The tradition of gazing at the moon, and watching the dance and song later became a traditional event on eve of the Mid-Autumn celebration.The Mid-Autumn Festival spread throughout the neighboring countries and vassal kingdoms of China. The Vietnamese Annals did not reveal from what precise time the Mid-Autumn Festival tradition was introduced in the country. They only know that, for centuries, their ancestors have followed this tradition.

For the Vietnamese, in its most ancient form, the evening commemorated the dragon who brought rain for the crops. Celebrants would observe the moon to divine the future of the people and harvests. Eventually the celebration came to symbolize a reverence for fertility, with prayers given for bountiful harvests,



increase in livestock, and human babies. Over time, the prayers for children evolved into a celebration of children. Confucian scholars continued the tradition of gazing at the moon, but to sip wine and improvise poetry and song. By the early twentieth century in Hanoi, the festival had begun to assume its identity as a children's festival

II. Mid Autumn Festival in Vietnam:

From the beginning of the month, people have prepared for the festival with colorful and different shape lanterns. Moon cakes or mid-autumn cakes are also prepared along with the various toys for children. There are many traditional toys that the most typical ones are star lantern, paper doctor human, animal shape lantern, etc. Children carry the lanterns walk from streets to streets in the funny sounds of their singing every evening. When the principle time of the festival comes, there are groups of lion dance with crowded drums and cymbals. In this occasion, to enjoy the beauty of the moon, there are many activities are organized. Adults and children have their own way of celebrating.

2.1 Lantern festival:

In Vietnam, the children participate in parades with lanterns of various forms and colors like: star lanterns, flower lanterns and diverse funny masks such as clown mask, lion mask, prince or princess mask for the special performance in the evening of the full moon. Everywhere is fallen in the active and colourful air. The main point of the Mid-Autumn is that children use the beautiful lanterns, wear funny masks, perform fantastic lion dances, sing folklore songs in the house’s grounds or in the streets when the moon is rising. It is really an exciting show.andcrafted shadow lanterns were an important part of Mid-Autumn displays since the 12th-century Ly dynasty, often of historical figures from Vietnamese history. Handcrafted lantern-making declined in modern times due to the availability of mass-produced plastic lanterns.

In the day of Mid-Autumn, people make the feast with moon shape cakes, lanterns and flowers decorating, and jubilant dancing. There are many competitions to make feast and make cakes among the women. Children would also have competition in showing their lanterns, and lantern processing. Many families place the feast for children and there was often a paper doctor human in the highest location of the feast, and the fruits and flowers surround all. After enjoy the feast and moon, children will eat what they have in the feast while it is on the late evening.



2.2 Mooncakes:

Today, the approach of Tet Trung Thu is signaled by the appearance of stands selling Banh Trung Thu, or mooncakes, all over Vietnam’s streets. These cakes are very rich and are filled with lotus seeds, ground beans, and an egg yolk, though there are other varieties. Although typical mooncakes can be around a few inches in diameter, imperial chefs have made some as large as several feet in diameter, with its surface impressed with designs of Chang'e, cassia trees, or the Moon-Palace.One tradition is to pile 13 mooncakes on top of each other to mimic a pagoda, the number 13 being chosen to represent the 13 months in a full lunar year.Everyone sounds “How delicious Moon cakes are!” after tasting them and can’t say no with them. Moon cakes symbolise Luck, Happiness, Health and Wealth on the Mid-Autumn day. Mooncakes are the most important traditional food related to Tet Trung Thu, and they are massively popular.

Every year these stands take up more and more space here in Saigon. Boxes of mooncakes are often given as gifts before the holiday, which can make for awkward situations. Despite their popularity, mooncakes have a divisive flavor, as many people can’t stand them, especially foreigners. Several times I have had to graciously accept a box of cakes, only to end up either giving it away or throwing it out if no one else wants it.

2.3 “To he”

In Vietnam, cakes and fruits are not only consumed, but elaborately prepared as food displays. For example, glutinous rice flour and rice paste are molded into familiar animals. Pomelo sections can be fashioned into unicorns, rabbits, or dogs.Villagers of Xuân La, just south of Hanoi, produce tò he, figurines made from rice paste and colored with natural food dyes. Into the early decades of the twentieth century of Vietnam, daughters of wealthy families would prepare elaborate centerpieces filled with treats for their younger siblings. Well-dressed visitors could visit to observe the daughter's handiwork as an indication of her capabilities as a wife in the future. Eventually the practice of arranging centerpieces became a tradition not just limited to wealthy families.

2.4 Folk songs singing contest

There is a custom of singing contest in the North of Vietnam. Two groups of women and men sing and compete with each other. They also play an instrument made from a drum and a string above the surface of the drum to create the



rhythm of the song. The songs may be already written or created promptly by the competitors. The competition would be happy most of the time, but it also could aggressive when there is a hard riddle.

2.5 Lion dance:

The other most visible tradition related to Tet Trung Thu is the lion dance. On the nights leading up to the holiday groups of children parade through the streets – some of the children maintain a martial beat on drums, while others control an extravagantly decorated ‘lion’ crafted from molds and paper. There is often a person holding the lion head and a person holding the flag to dance along with the rhythm of the dance. The head of the lion has a long tail made from red cloth. There are also cymbals, five color flag, and a person holding a stick to support the lion head. The group of lion dance is ahead, and the adults and children are behind. In these days, there are often some money awards for children in the family hanging on the height for the lion to catch.Children often go to the lion dance early, since 7th and 8th of eight lunar month, they just come to have fun but not want to catch the awards. However, the people love them, and they still give them money.

The children approach homes and businesses and ask the owners for their permission to perform. If they agree, the children put on a show that is believed to bring a blessing of luck and fortune. Afterwards the host gives the children lucky money as a sign of gratitude.

These lion dances are fascinating, and huge amounts of children, ranging from little kids to teenagers, take part. Some are quite professional, while others a bit disorganized. As a result of having so many groups of children marching around, the streets of the cities echo with the sound of drums, as dozens of lions roam about.

2.6 Courtship and matchmaking

The Mid-Autumn moon has traditionally been a choice occasion to celebrate marriages.Into the early decades of the twentieth century Vietnam, young men and women used the festival as a chance to meet future life companions. Groups would assemble in a courtyard and exchange verses of song while gazing at the moon. Those who performed poorly were sidelined until one young man and one young woman remained, after which they would win prizes as well as entertain matrimonial prospects.



III. Conclusion:

The Mid-Autumn celebration is an opportunity for members of the family to visit

together and share together everything in their year. The young generation

express their gratitude to the old generation. The parents show their love for their

children. Because the autumn is the time of the beginning of the new school

year, so the adults and parents give gifts to the children. And the teenagers

receive a lot of presents with many good luck wishes before the hard school time.

The symbol PhD which is made from paper represents good wishes for success

to pupils. For others, because the traditional time to have this festival is usually

after harvesting the crops, it is as the congratulation for the full harvest. Mid-

Autumn Festival is a traditional festival of Vietnam, contain many essence of

Vietnamese culture. It should be maintained to reserve the national identity.



IV. Refferences:

1. Nguyen, Van Huy (2003), "The Mid-Autumn Festival (Tet Trung Thu),

Yesterday and Today", in Kendall, Laurel, Vietnam: Journeys of Body,

Mind, and Spirit,

2. "Tet Trung Thu". FamilyCulture.com. Archived from the original on June

23, 2012. Retrieved 14 November 2010.

3. Yang, Fang. "Mid-Autumn Festival and its traditions". “The festival,

celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar,

has no fixed date on the Western calendar, but the day always

coincides with a full moon.”

4. Mid-Autumn Festival in pics ://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-

29106028

5. The history and Origins of Mid-Autumn Festival:

http://www.chinahighlights.com/festivals/mid-autumn-festival-history-

origin.htm

6. Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam:

http://www.vietnamvisaonentry.com/blog/what-to-see-in-mid-autumn-

festival-in-vietnam/

THE END


mid-autumn festival in vietnam

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