The Mid Autumn Moon Festival

The Mid Autumn Moon Festival is a harvest festival that is celebrated in several Asian countries on the full moon in the eighth month of the lunar calendar.

This September in Port Coquitlam and Coquitlam we celebrated the Mid Autumn Moon Festival in the Vietnamese tradition with events aimed at children and the whole family.

For a photographic record of the events, see the Port Coquitlam or Coquitlam pages

The Vietnamese version of the festival is a family occasion, designed for children to enjoy. The festival is also called the Moon Festival, the Children’s Festival, or the Lantern Festival, these names reflecting the important themes of the Mid Autumn Festival.

Typical activities for an organized event would include: • Story-telling: traditional moon legends for children • Lanterns: display of artwork, lanterns for children to take home • Performance: traditional dance and music, performed by children where possible. • Moon cakes: the traditional holiday treat

These are pictures from past moon festival events illustrating these activities.