Memories of the Mid-Autumn Festival are always among the most vivid childhood memories for everyone.
Beautiful childhood memories stay with us throughout our lives, providing wholesome nourishment that helps us grow, enabling each of us to enter life with greater confidence and humanity. In other words, those memories become an irreplaceable source of strength and spiritual support.
The devastating storms and floods that have just passed have meant that the Mid-Autumn Festival of the Year of the Dragon 2024 will not be complete. Many children in the flood-affected areas will sadly never again witness the joyful Mid-Autumn Festival. Those children fortunate enough to survive the storms and floods, still reeling from the shock and unable to fully comprehend what happened, have the right to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, albeit not as fully as usual.
 |
| Star-shaped lanterns – a familiar image during the Mid-Autumn Festival. |
The children fully deserve to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival as they have long awaited, surrounded by the love and care of the community and the government. This will allow them to deeply appreciate the value of family bonds and nurture the innocent and pure emotions of childhood.
For adults, there is no doubt that the Mid-Autumn Festival is also a festival of love and sharing, and an even greater opportunity for adults to remind themselves to care more for children with love, responsibility, and practical actions.
Vietnam is a country of culture, of humanity, and of human values. While devastating storms and floods have passed, and countless urgent and immediate issues need to be addressed, we must dedicate the best that our locality has to offer to our children. We may have to postpone festivals and planned activities and events, but we must not forget to ensure that millions of children have the most meaningful Mid-Autumn Festival possible.
It is heartening and commendable that even in many flood-affected areas, local authorities still organized Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations for children by mobilizing resources and receiving support from philanthropists and businesses. The image of star-shaped lanterns, toys unique to the Mid-Autumn Festival, or packages of candies and snacks being distributed to children in small boats and canoes is a beautiful and touching sight during these times.
On another level, the efforts by local authorities in flood-affected areas to organize Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations for children also serve to alleviate suffering, reassure and encourage local residents to work together to overcome the floods and return to normal life as soon as possible.
These humane acts need to be spread and not become the subject of gossip or even discordant social media posts like, " There's so much to do after the floods, what's the point of Mid-Autumn Festival ?!"
Around this time, numerous speculations arose about the newly crowned beauty queen. They compared her image to that of a female teacher in a flood-stricken area thousands of kilometers away, covered in mud from head to toe, who only had time to eat a packet of instant noodles during her break. They argued that this was the true image of a "beauty queen."
There seems to be something rather heartless going on here.
It has been reported that Miss Ky Duyen, the winner of the recently concluded Miss Universe Vietnam competition, will donate 500 million VND to support people in the northern provinces affected by Typhoon Yagi . This amount is 10 times higher than the initial donation (50 million VND) that Ky Duyen made to support all those severely affected by Typhoon No. 3.
Following Kỳ Duyên's practical action, many other beauty queens and runners-up in Vietnam have quickly joined hands to support those affected by the storm and floods. These include: Miss Vietnam Đỗ Thị Hà donating 200 million VND, runner-up Ngô Thị Thanh Tú 20 million VND, Miss Vietnam 2012 Đặng Thu Thảo 100 million VND, runner-up Huyền My 3 million VND, runner-up Tú Anh 20 million VND, beauty queen Phùng Bảo Ngọc Vân 5 million VND, and Miss Vietnam Nguyễn Thúc Thùy Tiên 50 million VND. Meanwhile, Mrs. Vietnam Phương Lê donated 500 million VND to those affected by Typhoon Yagi, and Miss Vietnam H'Hen Niê donated 100 million VND. This list is still ongoing. The organizers and contestants of the Miss Tourism Vietnam Global 2024 competition have also raised 100 million VND. Over 40 beauty queens helped clean up school areas and homes damaged by Typhoon No. 3 in Hai Phong.
Our traditional culture always serves as a foundation and illuminates healthy, positive thinking, and there is absolutely no place for the extreme glorification on social media through posts that contrast events and images to satisfy an ego alienated from the community.
Is there a time when we slow down to consider how, amidst the challenges, perhaps even the harsh ones, life throws at us, and how we can find something sacred and humane for ourselves and for the community? And even in the virtual world , we must live more authentically than ever before.
Comment (0)