Mid Autumn Festival 🌕

The full moon has a great importance in East Asian Culture - following the Chinese lunar calendar the 15th day of the 8th month. It’s a time of family reunion with festivities with dragon performances, lion dances, lantern walks for children, and moon cakes being sold in shops ( sweet or savory doughy cakes). We had tried the moon cakes before understanding it’s a seasonal item. The occasion is similar to Thanksgiving. The first we heard of it was during the Ha Giang Loop over two weeks before the actual full moon and even in Hanoi there had been special food markets, so it’s more a month/ weeks of celebration rather than a night. In Da Nang we saw this huge crowd of people stopped with their bikes on the street and thought maybe a celebrity was passing by, but it was for the street dragon performances. In Hoi An we then had the opportunity to see them for ourselves, really impressive, a beautiful tradition to grow up with. The dragon eyes and teeth do look quite imposing when it’s coming towards you.Read more