The Full-Moon Festival is a top significant Vietnamese festival. It is a joyful event with colorful lanterns, scrumptious moon cakes, and ecstatic vibes. In the occasion of Full-Moon Festival, moon cakes are usually used as gifts of people to the others, especially their parents and grandparents. Vietnamese also put moon cakes and variety of fruits on ancestral altar to offer their ancestor. At night, all members of family will gather around a lavish tray of fruits and of course, moon cakes, and savor it together while admiring the full moon.

Top Things To Do in Mid-autumn Festival

(Tet Trung Thu)

There will be a lot going on the 14th and especially 15th nights. Everything is abundant from the roistering drum noise on the streets to the foods each family prepares for the gathering under the moonlight.

1. Lanterns

Mid-autumn is a festival of lanterns of all shapes and sizes – brightly lit lanterns on the streets, lanterns carried by the children, lanterns floating on the rivers….


Lanterns were a symbol of fertility, nowadays function mainly as toys and decoration. It has been a tradition to have a parade of children carrying lanterns under the full moon. Nowadays, children are marching on the streets with their parents.

Lanterns and masks were prepared by the parents for their kids days before the festival. Which helps to hype them up so much for the event. It would be considered such a disappointment for the kids if they fail to receive those.

2. Mooncake and other foods

In each Vietnamese family, under the moonlight, all members will gather around a feast to celebrate the full moon.  All the seasonal foods like grapefruit and other autumn fruits (gold apple, persimmon, sugar apple), mooncake, snow skin mooncake, carp-shaped cakes, green rice. One fruit that can’t be missed is grapefruits whose vesicles are shaped into a small dog. The family and mainly the kids will participate in the feast, adults often eat mooncake while drinking tea.


Moon Cake is the symbol of the Mid-autumn festival. Vietnamese people buy mooncakes to eat and to give to others as gifts. Businesses also use mooncakes to thank their partners during this time of year. Mooncakes can be kept for months which makes them fit perfectly to be gifts for many reasons.

3. Street performance – lion dance

Dragon and lion dances are performed before, during and after the festival, most joyous in the days of 15th and 16th. This type of performance is very popular among Asian countries, used in important events like openings, New Year, festivals….

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