Society

Preserving the traditional beauty of the Mid-Autumn Festival

Minh Quan • September 17, 2024 08:05

The Mid-Autumn Festival not only brings joy and excitement to children and teenagers, but also contains the nation's beautiful traditional cultural values. In modern life, preserving the Mid-Autumn Festival is an issue that needs attention in order to contribute to preserving and promoting the national cultural identity, continuing to care for and nurture the country's future generations. On this occasion, Nghe An Newspaper had an interview with Dr. Nguyen Thi Duyen - Lecturer of Vietnamese Customs and Practices at the Faculty of History, Vinh University.

In the modern life, preserving the Mid-Autumn Festival is an issue that needs attention in order to contribute to preserving and promoting the national cultural identity, continuing to care for and nurture the future generations of the country. On this occasion, Nghe An Newspaper had an interview with Dr. Nguyen Thi Duyen - Lecturer of Vietnamese Customs and Practices at the Faculty of History, Vinh University.

Minh Quan(Implementation) • September 16, 2024

PV: Dear Dr. Nguyen Thi Duyen, for generations, the Mid-Autumn Festival has been a beautiful part of Vietnamese culture. So can you tell us about the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival?

Dr. Nguyen Thi Duyen:In the traditional calendar of Vietnamese customs, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a big festival held in the middle of Autumn, on the full moon night of the eighth lunar month, when the moon is full, the autumn is cool and it is the idle time, when farmers have finished plowing and planting. Currently, there is no document that confirms the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

But looking in the national culture, during the Dong Son culture, on the Ngoc Lu bronze drum, there was an image of people in disguise, in the festival season with reeds on their heads. Reeds are a plant of the autumn, when people finished their crops, the mild weather was also the time for farmers to hold festivals to pray for a good harvest, sing, and have fun.

The reeds bloom white in the forest in the autumn, so the old Vietnamese folk song has the saying: "In August I go to play in the spring. When I come here, I meet the military drum festival". This is also the time when people hold festivals to pray for a good harvest, sing love songs to the rhythm of military drums, watch the moon, have fun, and sing. On that basis, researchers put forward the view that the Mid-Autumn Festival has indigenous origins, originating from the production life of the Vietnamese people in ancient times.

In addition, the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival is also influenced by external factors. These are stories about Hang Nga - Hau Nghe, about the birthday of King Duong Minh Hoang (712-756). Or the origin of this holiday is related to the legend of Duong Minh Hoang strolling in the Royal Garden on the full moon night of the eighth lunar month. The king was taken to the moon palace by a Taoist with magical powers to enjoy the fairyland. When returning to the human world, the king was so attached to the fairyland that he created the Nghe Thuong y vu song and every full moon night of the eighth lunar month, he ordered the people to organize lantern parades and parties to celebrate.

Thus, the Mid-Autumn Festival has long become an important holiday. The origin of this holiday may be partly influenced by Chinese culture, but above all it is a holiday originating from the lives of indigenous people, related to the worship of the Moon, to life, and agricultural ceremonies.

After the success of the August Revolution in 1945, in 1946, on the occasion of the Mid-Autumn Festival, President Ho Chi Minh sent a letter to children across the country. From this point on, the Mid-Autumn Festival truly became a children's festival, celebrated every year with great joy and great significance for the children of the whole country.

PV:Can you tell us the characteristics of the ancient Mid-Autumn Festival?

Dr. Nguyen Thi Duyen:According to Phan Ke Binh in the book Vietnamese Customs, "in the 19th century, our people prepared offerings to worship their ancestors during the day and set up offerings to enjoy the moon at night." Right from the beginning of August, on the occasion of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the atmosphere of preparing for the Mid-Autumn Festival in every village and street was bustling and exciting like a festival, attracting adults and children.

Adults have prepared and decorated the Mid-Autumn Festival to have lively trays of offerings and colorful toys. The Mid-Autumn Festival tray usually focuses on a dog made from grapefruit segments, with two black beans attached as eyes. Around it, there are fruits, baked cakes, and sticky rice cakes. Dried grapefruit seeds are strung through steel wires and burned. Fruits often include bananas, green rice, persimmons, custard apples, grapefruits, etc. On the tray, there can also be displayed paper images of scholars (doctors), demonstrating the tradition of learning of our people. When the moon reaches its zenith, it is time to break the feast, and everyone can enjoy the flavors of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Toys for children during the Mid-Autumn Festival are papier-mâché things such as elephants, horses, unicorns, lions, dragons, deer, shrimps, fish, butterflies, mantises... In addition, masks, lanterns, star lanterns and lion heads are the most popular toys during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Masks are usually made of cardboard or papier-mâché, with popular images of children's favorite characters at that time such as: Lion heads, Mr. Dia, Sun Wukong, Pigsy, White Bone Spirit...

On the evening of the Mid-Autumn Festival, children lead each other to tug of war, catch the folk song, carry lanterns, carry lions, drums, and cymbals. Vietnamese people dance lions or unicorns, symbolizing luck, prosperity, and good luck for every family... In ancient times, Vietnamese people also organized the Trong Quan singing and the lantern procession during the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Trong Quan singing follows the rhythm of three "thinh, thung, thinh".

In addition to the entertainment for children and adults, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also an occasion for people to watch the moon, remember the story of Cuoi sitting under the banyan tree, predicting the harvest and the fate of the nation. An old folk song says: "A clear moon means a good harvest. A cloudy moon means a good harvest." This is also a happy day for family reunions, an occasion when people often give their grandparents, parents, teachers, friends, relatives and other benefactors moon cakes, fruits, tea, wine...

According to researcher Le Trung Vu: "Mid-Autumn Festival is also a link in the chain of festivals in the annual movement of Vietnamese people, taking the relationship between nature (weather), seasons (cultivation) and people with a noble humanistic spirit (dedicating this festival to the preschool class of society) as the foundation, so the value of this festival becomes profound and sustainable".

PV: Over time, the Mid-Autumn Festival has gradually changed in terms of its organization and activities. Can you tell us more about this change?

Dr. Nguyen Thi Duyen:During the Mid-Autumn Festival, good customs such as: worshiping ancestors, grandparents, setting up trays of offerings to welcome the moon, carrying star lanterns, lion dances... are still practiced by people from the countryside to the cities on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. However, over time, in today's Mid-Autumn Festival, traditional Mid-Autumn gifts are no longer many, traditional folk toys are becoming less and less, replaced by many electronic toys. Today's Mid-Autumn Festival also lacks fun collective games; children are often taken by their parents to shopping malls, points of sale to have fun, shop or go out. Moon cakes are also made with new materials, of better quality but the price is higher. Nowadays, people prepare Mid-Autumn Festival trays more elaborately and carefully with many kinds of imported fruits and candies; the details that had educational significance in the past are becoming less and less...

The cause of this change is the development of modern society along with the influence of economic and commercial factors, which have impacted and changed the way of organizing the Mid-Autumn Festival in particular and traditional cultural activities in general. Besides, the issue of preserving traditional cultural features in the Mid-Autumn Festival in many places has not been paid attention to or focused on.

PV:So, in your opinion, what should we do to further promote the traditional beauty of the Mid-Autumn Festival in modern society?

Dr. Nguyen Thi Duyen:As we have discussed, Mid-Autumn Festival is a very meaningful custom, showing care, gratitude, filial piety, especially showing love for teenagers and children - the future generation of the country.

In order for the Mid-Autumn Festival to increasingly promote its traditional beauty in modern society, all classes of people need to show their concern from within the family: Children show filial piety and gratitude to grandparents and parents; adults pay attention to the care and education of children, focusing on educating traditional national culture so that children understand the meaning of the Mid-Autumn Festival, see the investment and care of family and society for children, thereby having the awareness to practice and cultivate morality, have the right attitude to study to become useful people for society.

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In order for the Mid-Autumn Festival to increasingly promote its traditional beauty in modern society, people of all walks of life need to show their concern from within their families...”.

Along with that, it is necessary to focus on restoring traditional games, producing traditional toys with educational and aesthetic significance, promoting children's creativity and intelligence, and not commercializing cultural products and toys for children that lack aesthetics and educational significance.

In addition, it is necessary to promote collective games to enhance the community spirit for children, limit the negative aspects of customs in modern society, so that everyone knows how to appreciate the true value of the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is necessary to consider the Mid-Autumn Festival as the Festival of future generations, of dreams and ambitions, from which families and society need to pay attention to taking care of organizing the Mid-Autumn Festival for children in a joyful, healthy, and elegant way, so that each Mid-Autumn Festival is a beautiful memory in the unforgettable luggage of childhood when growing up.

PV:Thanks for the chat, Dr.!

Minh Quan