Written by Vi Parker
I came into the world during the Mid-Autumn Festival, Tet Trung Thu, in the vibrant city of Saigon, Vietnam. When my mother reminisces about the day I was born she always recounts the story of my uncles bringing to the hospital beautifully decorated, brightly coloured and enormous cellophane lanterns that were much too big for an unknowing new born. The lanterns were in the shape of a dragon, a fish, a butterfly, my mother reminds me fondly. Our final Tet Trung Thu before reaching Australia was spent in the refugee camps of Indonesia, where my father, with quiet ingenuity, fashioned lanterns from tin cans. He poked tiny holes in the cans and placed a candle inside each tin lantern for my brother and me. They were not gloriously nor colourfully adorned, but they brought hope and wonder to a place where joy was scarce but never absent.
The Mid-Autumn Festival also known as Children’s Festival, Moon Festival, or Reunion Festival, is one of the most important and beloved celebrations in Vietnam. The festival takes place when the moon is at its fullest and brightest in the month, symbolising completeness, harmony and reunion in Vietnamese culture. Following tradition, Mid-Autumn Festival always occurs on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month each year. This year, the festival falls on the 6th October, 2025, according to the solar calendar.
The Mid-Autumn Festival, traces its roots to the ancient rhythms of agrarian life, when communities honoured the moon as a celestial guardian of the harvest. In those early days, the festival was a quiet offering of gratitude, a moment of harmony between earth and sky. Over time, it absorbed the warmth of local legends and the laughter of children, evolving into a celebration of reunion and joy. Today, Mid-Autumn Festival serves as a reminder to cherish the bonds of family. Children honour their ancestors and elders with gestures of gratitude, while parents and grandparents offer gifts to the young as tokens of love and continuity. The community comes alive in a tapestry of light and sound: lantern processions weave through the streets and energetic, acrobatic lively lion dances ward away evil, and tables overflow with shared delicacies.
Like all festivals in Vietnam, food plays a central role in celebrations. No Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam is complete without its signature foods. From the iconic mooncakes to fresh seasonal fruits such as persimmon, starfruit and pomelo. The mooncakes, round in shape echoes the fullness of the harvest moon, have always been the heart of Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations. The mooncakes have traditionally been filled with lotus seed paste, smooth and fragrant; mung bean, subtly sweet; but my favourite as a child, the salted egg yolk filled ones. They were rich and savoury, nestled like a hidden treasure inside. Somehow they felt special, different and extra delicious. As a child, I would watch patiently as my grandmother carefully sliced the golden pastries into perfect wedges, each piece revealing a treasure inside, secretly hoping no would take the egg filled ones.
In recent years, the mooncakes take on new forms and fillings now include chocolate, matcha, even durian, each one a playful twist on tradition. But no matter the flavour, the ritual remains the same: slicing the cake into perfect wedges, sharing it with family, and savouring not just the taste, but the moment. It’s a quiet joy, a bite of memory, and a reminder of how food can carry culture, comfort, and connection across time and distance.
Festivals like Mid-Autumn Festival, Tet Trung Thu, always stir a deeper longing for my family, their distance from me and absence feels most profound. So as the mid-autumn moon rises, hug your families a little tighter for me.