Children in Vietnam look forward to the Mid-Autumn Festival every year. This is a traditional festival celebrating another autumn moon and has a special focus on children, with moon cakes to eat and colorful star lanterns which are sometimes carried in a small parade.
YWAM Mercy believes it is important to keep children strongly connected to their community and their culture. So we organized parties for children in all three of our community-based children’s homes to celebrate.
This is a time when the newer children create deeper connections and when former members and older children, studying at college or vocational school, return to reconnect with the people and place of their childhood. It is both a fun and meaningful time.
This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival in the Phu Chau Home was a cooperation between the Youth Unions of both Ba Vi and Phu Chau. Guests brought special performances, fruits, cookies, and candies to contribute to the party with the children.
The Tan Linh and Van Hoa Homes decided to use beautiful star-shaped lanterns, wear funny masks, and sing folklore songs together in the Van Hoa Home’s front-yard while the moon was rising.
Our annual Mid-Autumn Festival party for children in the Homes always receives the attention of local authorities at all levels. The District Steering Committee and the People’s Committees in each village gave presents to the children on this special day.
To Vietnamese, the full moon is a symbol of family reunion. We have dinner together, appreciate the moon, enjoy performances and moon cakes, and share about our future plans. It’s a fun time that makes for great childhood memories.
