Vietnam celebrates Mid-Autumn festival

This picture taken on September 6, 2014 shows a vendor selling paper models of doctors among other toys and gifts for the mid-autumn festival celebrations in Quoc Oai, a village on the outskirts of Hanoi. [Photo/CFP]

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HO CHI MINH CITY - The Mid-Autumn festival ( usually falls on the 15th day of the lunar month of August), is one of the biggest celebrations of the year in Vietnam when families get together to have fun and share food.

According to some sociologists, the festival probably stems from the custom of predicting the weather according to sightings of the moon may be associated with the wet rice culture. This custom is widespread in the south of China and in some Southeast Asian countries.

This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival was on Monday, a working day in Vietnam, hence it had been celebrated for days ahead, especially during the last weekend of the month.

Throughout the country, a festive atmosphere prevailed, made more colorful by the dragon dance performed in the streets to the loud beat of a giant drum.

"Children usually anticipate to have new toys during the Mid- Autumn festival while we adults wait for the family reunion," Ngo Bao Bao, 24, an office employer working in District 11 of southern Ho Chi Minh (HCM) city, told Xinhua.

Born into a Chinese-origin family who had come and settled in Vietnam for many decades, Bao said he heard many stories from his grandparents and parents on how they used to celebrate the Mid- Autumn Festival.

"About 10 days before the official celebration, we often clean up the house and decorate it with red lanterns. We buy toys for the kids, and prepare cakes, tea and food for the family's big reunion dinner," Bao said.

Bao said after dinner, the children would show off their new toys to each other while the older ones would play poker.