ORIGIN AND MEANING OF MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL.VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=THICH CHAN TANH.

In addition to playing for children and adults, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also an opportunity for people to watch the moon to predict the harvest and national destiny. If the autumn moon is yellow, then the year will hit the silkworm season, if the autumn moon is green or green, then that year will have a natural disaster, and if the autumn moon is bright orange, the country will prevail.

According to our Vietnamese custom, the Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated in the middle of the fall, which is the full moon day of August. On this occasion, people make offerings to the ancestors and display the fruit cake to the yard to worship the moon. On this occasion, adults drink wine, enjoy the moon, and sing military drums; children pick up lamps, go to see lion dances, sing Mid-Autumn Festival songs, and enjoy candies and fruits displayed by their parents in the yard on Mid-Autumn Night in the form of a tray. Traditionally, the fact that children enjoy fruit and candy on this Mid-Autumn Festival night is called "breaking the deck".

Origin Mid-Autumn Festival

The Vietnamese people eat the Mid-Autumn Festival on the full moon day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar because we follow Chinese customs. It is said that Duong Minh Hoang (713-741 West Lich) roamed the garden of Ngu Uyen on the full moon night of the eighth lunar month. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, the moon is very full and bright. It's really beautiful and cool air.

The king was enjoying the beautiful scenery when he met the Taoist priest La Cong Vien also known as Diep Phap Thien. Magi have the power to take the king to the moon. There, more beautiful scenery. The king rejoice in enjoying the fairy and the melodious with the magical sound and light and the fairies in the colorful robes and dancing and singing. In the wonderful hour, the king forgot about the morning sun. Magi must remind, the king just left, but his heart was still in shock.

Arriving at the royal palace, the king still had a problem with the fairy, so he created Khuc Nghe Thuong Vu Y and on the full moon night of August, he ordered the people to organize the procession of the lanterns and celebrate party while the king and Yang Gui Fei drank alcohol under the moon and watched the girl group dance and sing to celebrate her magical power. Since then, organizing the procession of lights and banqueting on the full moon day of August has become a custom of the folk.

It is also said that the custom of hanging lanterns on the full moon day of the eighth lunar month is due to the birthday of Emperor Minh Hoang. Because the full moon day of August was the birthday of Emperor Tang Minh Hoang, the Tang court ordered people everywhere in the country to hang lamps and set up celebrations. Since then, hanging lanterns on the full moon day of August has become the custom.

There is another story that a general named Luu Tu from the Western Han dynasty, from 206 BC to 23 CE, while the poor military forces prayed to God to help the soldiers have food to wait for the troops reinforcements. After praying to God, the soldiers found taro and grapefruit to eat. Thanks to this later Luu Tu was able to stabilize the whole country and became a king, ie King Quang Vo of Hau Han. The day that Liu Xi is inspired is the full moon day of August. From then on, the king commanded to go to full moon in August, making offerings to the heavens and the earth and rewarding the moon with taro and grapefruit. This playful solemn holiday is called the Mid-Autumn Festival. This practice has been transmitted to Vietnam and has been modified by the Vietnamese to suit Vietnamese characteristics and customs.

Chinese and Vietnamese both make mooncakes to worship, eat, give gifts to their relatives, and treat guests. The next common point is that the Chinese and Vietnamese both hold the lantern procession during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Meaning of Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival of the Vietnamese people has many special features different from the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. According to Vietnamese customs, parents present their children to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, buy and make all kinds of lanterns with candles to hang in the house and let the children process the lights.

Mooncakes include moon cakes, candy, sugarcane, grapefruit, and other fruits. This is an opportunity for children to understand their parents' loving care for them specifically. Therefore, the family love even more tightened.

Also on this occasion, people buy moon cakes, tea, wine to worship ancestors, to give grandparents, parents, teachers, friends, relatives, and other benefactors. It is a good opportunity for children and grandchildren to show their gratitude to their parents and grandparents and to let the people show their gratitude to each other.

The Chinese often organize lion dance during the Lunar New Year. Vietnamese people especially organize Lion dance or Lan dance in the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Unicorn symbolizes auspicious signs. The Chinese do not have these customs.

In the past, Vietnamese people also held Quan drum during the Trumg Autumn Festival. The military drum tunes to the beat of “thumb, bang, thump.” In the past, boys and girls used the military drum to sing on the full moon nights, especially in the full moon of August. Boys and girls sing and respond to each other both to have fun and to be picky for their hundred years. People use poems made in the form of hexadecimal or hexadecimal variations to sing.

The custom of singing military drums, according to legend, dates back to the time of King Lạc Long Quân of the Hồng Bàng Dynasty. Later, the drum song was applied by King Quang Trung (Nguyen Hue) when he brought his troops to the North to destroy the Qing army in 1788. While the soldiers were very homesick, he let some soldiers pretend to be girls. for boys and girls to sing and talk to each other while people beat the drums to the beat of the third beat. Therefore, the soldiers are happy but less homesick. Military drum songs have been popular since the Nguyen Hue period. The Chinese do not have this custom.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is the first time for adults to enjoy the natural beauty, eat cake, and drink tea to watch the full moon in the middle of the Autumn season. Gradually the Mid-Autumn Festival became Children's Day or Children's Day, but adults also took part in it. Children are taken care of by adults as the Vietnamese overseas associations have been doing. They have the opportunity to have fun with the procession of lights, sing, break the decks presented by their parents and especially have the opportunity to eat candies and drop the door without fear of being scolded as "eating tooth decay."

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, children in Vietnamese language classes have the opportunity to learn the song "Communion of August Lights" with interest: "Mid-Autumn Festival brings the lights to go out, and the children take the lights around the streets. Happy heart lamp in hand. Kids singing dancing in the moonlight. Military pull lamps with carp lights, swan lights with butterfly lights. I relay this light to the moon. Blue light with violet light, blue light with white white light. Looks like colorful lights. ”

The song "Procession of the Lights of August" has two more passages, but we don't remember all of them here. The lyrics and the music are really playful, easy to understand, and easy to sing. Most of the children memorized this song to sing during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Chinese do not have this activity.

In addition to playing for children and adults, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also an opportunity for people to watch the moon to predict the harvest and national destiny. If the autumn moon is yellow, then the year will be in the silk season, if the autumn moon is green or green, that year will have natural disasters, and if the autumn moon is bright orange, the country will be in prosperity ... etc ... The Chinese are not have this custom. In addition, the poets also thanks to the autumn moon that has composed many poems about the autumn moon and autumn, how to tell it!

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a very meaningful custom. That is the meaning of care, filial piety, gratitude, friendship, reunion, and love. END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).WORLD VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST ORDER=GOLDEN AMITABHA MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.1/9/2019.