Mid-Autumn Festival

The second most celebrated holiday in Vietnam, next to the Lunar New Year or Tet Holiday, passed through here a couple weekends ago. For business purposes and everyday planning the Vietnamese use the same calendar as we do in North America, however, for their holidays and traditional celebrations they use the lunar calendar.


On the 15th of August of the lunar calendar they celebrated the Mid-autumn Festival. The best way to explain it is a cross between our Halloween and Thanksgiving. It really is a holiday for children and a time to remember your ancestors. During the 2 days around the full moon, children practice the art of lion dancing in the streets. Much like dressing up in Halloween costumes and going door to door for treats; the children perform dances for the homes in their neighbourhood in exchange for some money. The children (most often boys from age 6-16) wear a two person lion costume. One boy is the head of the lion and one is the back half.













They are accompanied by a 'happy buddha' and drummers to create the beat for the dancers. The happy buddha fans the home owner while the lion is performing a dance.


When the they conduct the lion dance throughout your house they are said to be chasing the bad luck away for the rest of the year. The whole thing lasts about 5 to 10 minutes then you give them some change and they are off. Usually a crowd of spectators from the neighbourhood follow them from house to house. This all happened very quickly and I apologize for the poor photos but you get the idea.

Also, large stores, restaurants, or hotels will hire professional lion dancers to perform for their clients. I just happened to be at the supermarket at the right time to witness a spectacular dance. The streets were packed shoulder to shoulder.



For the full 2 days surrounding the full moon, there was an incredible energy in the streets. Everywhere you could hear the sounds of drums beating, people cheering for the lion dancers, and the youngest children running around in lion customes.

In the past, children would also be given small paper toys but within the last few years these small plastic toys from China have gained popularity.





This is also a time when families remember their ancestors and they burn incense, fake money and throw candy our on the streets for their ancestors to enjoy.



They place some fresh fruit, fake money, and/or flowers on the family alter. The tradition of placing food and gifts on the family ancestral alter is practiced at the full moon of every month, but for the Mid-Autumn Festival they will give some special seasonal fruit and maybe some extra gifts for their ancestors.



Families will enjoy and share mooncake. Gotta admit it isn't the most delicious of desserts but more of a traditional custom. Many families enjoy it in small portions with tea. I believe even the Vietnamese would admit that it is not eaten for its tasty attributes but more for the tradition. Kind of like when we hand out fruit cake at Christmas or grooms cake during a wedding. These cakes do take a lot of preparation and are quite expensive. Most families buy the cakes and give them as gifts to friends, family neighbours, or colleagues. The cakes are made of a heavy dense pastry (either from rice or flour) and the centres usually have a whole egg, durian fruit, coconut, or mung beans. These cakes can be purchased in many sizes and they are about $5-$10 for a small one of about 6 inches diameter.

Besides that I have been busy at work getting ready for our first training session for the coop leaders. Next few posts will be about some of the places I have been able to visit over the past few months and a report on how the training sessions turned out!!

The Fall Rice Harvest

When I arrived in Da Nang in early June, the rice fields were a rich green and each stem was half sticking out of the wet marsh.



Now the fields are dry and the rice is golden, as we approach the end of the dry season here in Da Nang it is time to harvest the rice.











I had the opportunity to go out to the field, I even helped out for a few hours!! It really reminded me of summers spent helping my neighbours haying back home in Bloomfield!! However, rice harvesting, in Vietnam at least, is much more labour intensive.















First, you must cut the rice stalks with a reaping hook (or sickle).



Then the cut stalks are placed in small piles as shown in this picture.




Once about 2 saos (1 sao = 500m2)have been cut, the small piles are carried by hand to one large pile. Once all the rice is collected they wait for the tumbling machine to come. The farmers around the community share the use of a tumbling machine, which trashes the rice stalks around to knock the rice grains off and toss the remaining part of the plant back into the field. The left over plant is burnt onsite and spread around the field for fertilizer. Before most families had gas stoves, the left over stalks were taken home with the help of the water buffalo and it was used for fires to cook the family meals.




Once the grains are sorted out of the stalk (each stalk has about 30-40 grains) they are poured into 50lbs bags.





All the farmers in the community work together to help each other harvest the rice. Each land owner then takes their crop home to dry out the grains. This takes about 3 or 4 days of dry weather....which can be difficult at the beginning of the rainy season. The family must keep an eye on the clouds and make sure to bag up the grains before they get wet!!




Once the rice grains are finally dry they are taken again to a communal tumbler machine or mill. After the small yellow husk on each grain is removed, the rice is finally ready for consumption!

I am not sure if this is accurate but from what I have learned about the rice process, a single grain of rice could pass through the human hand about 50 times before finally being served at the dinner table!! Hope this makes you appreciate the little white grains just a bit more....it certainly did for me:-)

Here are a few hard workers stopping for a much deserved lunch break. Of course they bring out the famous local dish, My Quang (My = pronounced 'me' means noodle, Quang is the province it originated) for everyone to have for lunch. You guessed it, the noodles are made of rice, and it is served with fresh shrimp, fish sauce, green vegetables are added just before you take a bit for some extra crunch!