More than just a holiday for children, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also a time for family reunions, thus it holds many cultural, spiritual, and artistic values, reflecting the unique identity of the Vietnamese people. This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival is even more meaningful with many attractive and lively activities organized in the context of the country transforming and entering a new era.
Tet Reunion strengthens community bonds.
Among the treasure trove of traditional Vietnamese festivals, the Mid-Autumn Festival always holds a special place. Taking place on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, when the moon is fullest and brightest of the year, the Mid-Autumn Festival is associated with the concept of a bountiful harvest, family reunion, and complete happiness.
Since ancient times, the Vietnamese have regarded the Mid-Autumn Festival as an occasion for family reunions, expressing gratitude to heaven, earth, and ancestors, while also conveying aspirations for a prosperous and peaceful life. The Mid-Autumn feast typically includes mooncakes, sticky rice cakes, freshly roasted rice flakes, and seasonal fruits such as persimmons, red persimmons, pomelos, and bananas, skillfully decorated into animal and flower shapes. These are not only offerings to ancestors but also expressions of love from parents to children and from family members to one another.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is also considered a festival for children. On this occasion, children get to make and play with star-shaped lanterns, carp-shaped lanterns, and revolving lanterns... Activities such as lantern parades, lion dances, moon gazing, and feasting have been maintained from generation to generation, becoming a beautiful traditional cultural feature unique to Vietnam.
According to Dr. Nguyen Viet Chuc, Vice Chairman of the Advisory Council on Culture and Society (Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front), the Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated in many Asian countries. In Vietnam, the Mid-Autumn Festival has its own unique characteristics with cultural activities that foster community bonding, focusing on profound humanistic values, and signifying a festival for children, family reunions, and solidarity. Therefore, the Vietnamese Mid-Autumn Festival is both a children's festival and a celebration of kinship and community. This cultural value has nurtured the souls of generations of Vietnamese people, becoming an indispensable part of their spiritual life.
To make the Mid-Autumn Festival even more joyful.
Entering modern urban life, the Mid-Autumn Festival has undergone many changes to adapt to the new pace of life. There was a period when the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival faded as many traditional activities were overshadowed by new games. Traditional Mid-Autumn lanterns became insignificant compared to the foreign-made plastic lanterns.
For many years now, with efforts to revive traditional culture, the Mid-Autumn Festival, with its folk beauty, has gradually returned, enriching modern life. Many localities organize traditional Mid-Autumn festivals with a modern twist, becoming unique cultural tourism products such as the "Thanh Tuyen Festival" in Tuyen Quang, famous for its parade of hundreds of giant Mid-Autumn lanterns through the streets. In Hoi An ancient town (Da Nang), the lantern processions, lion dances, and traditional opera performances have contributed to making the Mid-Autumn Festival a distinctive cultural tourism product.
In Hanoi , the Mid-Autumn Festival has truly become a traditional cultural event, organized systematically and on a large scale. Museums and historical sites such as Thang Long Imperial Citadel, Temple of Literature - National University, Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, and Hanoi's Old Quarter organize annual Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations, contributing to the attractiveness of these destinations and spreading the humanistic values of the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival.
This year – the first year Hanoi, along with the rest of the country, implemented a two-tiered local government system – the city organized the first ever "Mid-Autumn Festival" lantern procession in 126 communes and wards. Among them, Hoan Kiem ward organized the "Mid-Autumn Festival 2025" program on the evening of October 3rd at Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc Square, with 2,000 participants carrying lanterns around the Hoan Kiem Lake pedestrian area and its surroundings. From October 1st, the Thang Long Imperial Citadel Heritage Site organized the "Happy Mid-Autumn Festival 2025" program, showcasing the cultural beauty of the Mid-Autumn Festival from the Ly Dynasty and displaying many antique lanterns. On October 4th, the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports organized the "Fairy Tale Moon" program at the Hanoi Cultural and Library Center (Ha Dong ward).
In keeping with the festive atmosphere of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is organizing the 2025 Mid-Autumn Festival at the Vietnam Cultural and Arts Exhibition Center (2 Hoa Lu Street, Hanoi) from October 2nd to 5th with many attractive activities such as making traditional Mid-Autumn lanterns, making mooncakes, art exhibitions, lantern processions, etc.
The atmosphere of the Mid-Autumn Festival is spreading throughout the streets, residential areas, and villages of Hanoi and the whole country. In the context of integration, the Mid-Autumn Festival is no longer just a celebration for children and Vietnamese families, but is gradually becoming an attractive tourism product, linked to heritage, art, and creativity, contributing to promoting Vietnamese culture to the world. With its humanistic values, the Mid-Autumn Festival today is being renewed and expanded with many unique cultural and artistic spaces, meeting the increasingly sophisticated tastes of the public.
Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/tet-trung-thu-lan-toa-yeu-thuong-718548.html
![[Image] The appearance of the Bien Hoa-Vung Tau expressway before its opening.](https://vphoto.vietnam.vn/thumb/1200x675/vietnam/resource/IMAGE/2026/03/25/1774430324663_ndo_br_2-resize-6064-jpg.webp)
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