Thung thu, the Vietnamese “Moon Festival”, takes place every year on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, in the middle of fall.
This festival celebrates the beauty of the October full moon and is a chance for everybody, especially for children, to have some fun.
Families get together and eat traditional moon cakes. Then, the children put on masks, put candles inside their star lanterns and light them. The lanterns represent the brightness of the moon. Everybody goes into the dark night and follows the parade through the streets.
Unicorns dancers often dance in the crowded streets.
On almost every street corner there are stands, selling colourful lanterns, masks and fish or flower shaped moon cakes.
During the Thung thu people remember their dead relatives too. They pray and burn fake money in their memory. They believe that money in their memory brings good luck and that the smoke can carry it to they relatives.
