Erika Daum-Karanitsch describes below how she organised a Mid-Autumn Festival in Vienna.
Last May, I met up with a few Vietnamese friends and suggested that we organize a Mid-Autumn Festival in Vienna. I thought it would be fun for Austrian children and for Vietnamese children born in Austria.
We all grew excited about the idea and started thinking how we could organise a festival as close as possible to the Vietnamese original. Since many children had not been to Viet Nam, I started our party by asking questions. "Have you been to Viet Nam?" "Can you tell me the name of Viet Nam's most common crop?" "What colour is that plant?" "Have you celebrated Mid-Autumn Tet before?"
After our question-and-answer session, I started our little programme by describing the Mid-Autumn Festival.I told the children about our festival in HA Nei in 1995, when all our neighbours had put out chairs and tables in the little lanes. They decorated the tables with candles and gave the children fruit and sweets. The children ran around, playing with the lanterns, masks, and toys their parents had given them. The parents also enjoyed themselves as they chatted with family and friends.
After this introduction, we helped the children make their own masks And lanterns. One Vietnamese family crafted the typical stars made with a bamboo frame covered in coloured paper. We all had fun making masks and lanterns. By then, the mothers had laid out the fruit and sweets. While eating, we showed a video about Tet Trung Thu in Viet Nam. After that, some of the children started singing Vietnamese songs. Then one boy said that he remembered a dragon dance. I asked him to tell us more. All of a sudden the children grew very excited. I said, "OK, let's do it!".
We chose a big boy with a mask to be the head of the dragon. Another boy became'Ong dia, the smiling, round-faced monk who holds a fan and makes the dragon dance. Parents showed the children how to do the dragon dance. At first they hesitated but then joined in. We had so much fun! When the party ended, the children took home their lanterns, masks, and sweets. We all agreed to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival again next year.