Vietnam among 5 countries to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival in Asia

Vietnam has been named among the five countries to celebrate the exciting Mid-Autumn Festival beyond China in Asia by South China Morning Post.

The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, which in 2022, is September 10.

For the Vietnamese, the Mid-Autumn Festival (Tet Trung Thu) is a time to spend with loved ones after a season of hard work, and families welcome the festival by placing trays of fruit and cakes on their ancestral altars and eating mooncakes, the Hong Kong-based daily wrote.

The most common types of mooncake are the soft, sticky, mochi-like banh deo and baked banh nuong.

Lion’s head models, star-shaped lanterns, and paper lanterns are among the most popular traditional Mid-Autumn Festival toys.

"On the night of the full moon, a male dancer wearing a round happy-faced mask parades the streets, bringing people joy with his comical gestures. The mask is supposed to embody Ong Dia, the God of the Earth who symbolises prosperity and who serves as a reminder to the people to be thankful for the land’s harvests," SCMP wrote.

The other countries in the list are Thailand, Philippines, Japan and South Korea.

Cable news channel CNN recently selected Hanoi as one of the 12 best places to go for fall, calling the capital a "bright spot".

"Asia tourism in general has been the slowest to bounce back (Japan, for instance). But Vietnam is the real bright spot right now," CNN quoted Scott Keyes, the founder of flight deals and travel advice site Scott's Cheap Flights as saying.

"And autumn in the capital is drier and cooler with monsoon season ending," Forrest Brown, author of the CNN article, added.