MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL IN VIETNAM

Full-moon festival

Mid-autumn night

According to many documents of some countries in Asia, the Mid-autumn festival originated from China since Duong Dynasty (618-917). In this year, in the full moon day, when the King went out for a walk to enjoy the scene, he met a fairy which changed into an old man with white hair. This many with his magic power made up a beautiful rainbow which connected the Moon and Earth. King had chance to visit Quang Han Palace, where the Queen of the Moon lives. After coming back Earth, he decided to hold the full-moon festival to remind himself of this interesting experience. On that day in the past, people just drinking wine and viewing the moon. After that, people feel boring while viewing with only wine. Man decided to make some kind of cake so that the day will be more and more meaningful.

Moon cake:

Tea and Moon cake in full-moon day

Full-moon day is the day that Chinese people celebrated the victory against Mongolian in the 14th century. By an ingenious way, the soldier put pieces of paper written the day of the counter inside the cake then gave them to others that were staying among the Mongolian. After defeating the enemy, that kind of cake become an important part of people life to remind them of the essential victory to gain freedom. Today, the cakes are made from powder, lotus nuts and other ingredients.

Hang Nga – Queen of the Moon:

Hang Nga according Asian imagination

Along with the moon cakes, there are stories about Hang Nga, the person who takes care of the moon according to Asian belief. In past, there used to have 9 suns in the sky and these suns made the temperature of Earth hotter than ever. At that time, a young man name Hau Nghe tried to climb the highest mountain – Con Lon, used the magic bow with purpose to shot down all of the sun. But after that he realized that without sun, all creatures would die, so he just shot down 8 suns. Since then, the Earth became much more beautiful and cooler. When he came back, he got married to a girl named Hang Nga. Once day, when Hau Nghe went out for hunting, the Heaven Queen met and gave him a kind of medicine, said that, after using it, he can live permanently. Coming back home and gave it to his wife as he did not want to stay alone. But he did not know that there was a bad person knowing about this medicine. One day, when he went out for hunting, this man came and ask Hang Nga for the precious medicine. She refused to give him because she knew he was a bad one. She drunk all of it. After drinking, she was blown very far away and when she wake up, it was in the moon. Coming back home, Hau Nghe could not find his wife. Trying to find in vain, he looked up to sky and suddenly saw her in the moon. He talked with other people there and they decided to build up a temple to worship and ask for health and luck. Since then, the custom of worshiping the moon in full-moon festival started.