Mid-Autumn Festival 2024 Exhibition at Thang Long Imperial Citadel

16/09/2024

Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the four major Vietnamese festivals, taking place in mid-autumn, on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. Since ancient times, Mid-Autumn Festival has been one of the biggest festivals of the year. This is the time when the weather is cool, the crops are waiting to be harvested, the royal court and our people hold festivals to pray for a good harvest, sing, and have fun. Since the Ly Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival has been held by the royal court for three days with ancestor worship ceremonies, boat racing, water puppetry, hunting… Everywhere in the palace is decorated with colorful brocade lanterns. In addition, the people have the custom of worshiping ancestors during the day, and hanging lanterns in the evening to display offerings and enjoy the moon. This custom has been passed down through many generations and has become a beautiful cultural feature of the nation.

The exhibition includes two themes: traditional and royal Mid-Autumn Festival. The traditional Mid-Autumn Festival exhibition space includes booths of ancient Mid-Autumn Festival toys such as lion drums, frog drums, drums, lion heads, papier-mâché masks, tin toys, paper doctors, moon-watching stick-players, lanterns, monk lanterns, star lanterns, rabbit lanterns, shrimp and fish, etc. Among them, the most attractive are the ancient lamp models that have been lost and are now restored by cultural researcher Trinh Bach and artisan Nguyen Trong Binh such as live crab lanterns, cooked crab lanterns; carp watching the moon, carp transforming into dragons; dragon lanterns, unicorns, phoenixes, rabbits, butterflies, bees, pigs, horses; peach, pomegranate, Buddha’s hand lanterns made from traditional materials such as Do paper, crepe paper, cellophane, bamboo strips, rattan, glue, etc. In addition, a number of panels introducing documents and images explaining the Mid-Autumn Festival in the Ly Dynasty royal court with a focus on the art of autumn water puppetry are initially displayed.

Colorful check-in space, with many impressive angles: Bright flower lantern gate, Funny bamboo wall, Magical sparkling light road, Giant lantern, Super cute 3D animal lamp cluster…

Opening of the exhibition “Hanoi and the City Gates”

Exhibition of archives ‘Hanoi and the Gate Gates’

Mid-Autumn Festival 2024 Exhibition at Thang Long Imperial Citadel