MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL, NOWADAYS, FOR CHILDREN OR ADULT?????!!!!!!!!

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Tet Trung Thu - Mid Autumn Festival

One of most wonderful, ancient Vietnamese holiday, the Mid-Autumn Festival, occurs on the 15^th of the 8^th month of the lunar calendar and is especially dedicated to children. Children take part in several activities such as singing, dancing and parading with lanterns shapes as moons, stars or animals. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, the moon will appears larger than at any time of the year and take on reddish glow. The Mid-Autumn celebration is a celebration and a prayer for the fullness and completeness of life.

Several types of special cakes called banh trung thu are eaten at the festival time and are sold over places which are traditional and very rich in taste. The cakes are filled with lotus seeds, meat, green peas …and have an egg yolk in the center to represent the moon. The unicorn dance is an important aspect of this festival: there is the Lord Earth, called Ong Dia in Vietnamese, is the dancer who dances around the dragon, urging it on. Ong Dia has a very round, happy smiling moon face. He represents the wealth and fullness of the earth.

The meaning of Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn is colorful and happy time for families, an opportunity for parents to show their love and appreciation for their children, so the Mid-Autumn Festival is also called the Children’s Festival. After spending much time working hard and away from the family, Mid-Autumn Festival is period for spending time with children and do something special with them.

The Story related to Tet Trung Thu

A favorite folklore is about a carp that wanted to become a dragon. The carp worked and worked and eventually transformed itself into a dragon. This story behind the mythical symbol, Ca hoa rong, parents use this story to encourage their children to work hard so that they can become whatever they want to be.

There’s also a story about how the Moon Lady ascended to the moon. A man named Chu Cuoi found a lucky tree that had special healing powers. Because this tree was sacred, people were forbidden to urinate at the foot of this tree. Unfortunately, Chu Cuoi’s wife, chi Hang forgot the rule and urinated on the tree. On day, while she sitting on the tree’s branch, the tree started to grow and grow. Eventually, it reached the moon. Since the, chi Hang lived on the moon for the rest of her life as a punishment for desecrating at sacred tree.

Nowaday, Mid-Autumn Festival is for Children or Adult?

The Mid-Autumn is coming so soon, the atmosphere of this event is warming up day by day by plenty of Moon cake shops have grown so much in almost streets of our city. Today, when you come out, you easily see a lot of Moon cake trademarks as KinhDo, DongKhanh, Duc Phat., Hy Lam Mon …However, their price is sky-high, you can not find the cost under VND 20 000 on the price list of some prestigious Moon cake producers. The lowest prices per one Moon cake today is VND 28 000 even up to VND 80 000 per one cake weigh only 220gr…The component is extremely delicate, filling with bird’s nests (yen sao), abalone (bao ngu), lobster, lotus seed, honey…The high price also because of cake’s packing: almost Moon cake now are put in superior carton box which designed by colorful and luxurious pictures. The name for cake are also complicate and very difficult to understand such as: Thuong Nguyet, Vong Nguyet, Thu Nguyet, Nhat Nguyet (Bibica) , Phung Nhap Hoa Lam, Ngu Nhan Nguyet Binh ( Dong Khanh)…Specially, this season, Anco bakery introduced to consumer one Moon cake box is worth VND 2 999 999 named Anco King Moon cake, which if you want to buy, you have to order directly to Anco company as the quantity is limited: only 999 boxes. But until now, more than 700 boxes were placed…

From above prices (with so beautiful names), of course the producers are not forward to the low (even medium) income classes, that means poor children have to eat sell-off Moon cakes after Mid-Autumn or poor –quality cakes which no expiry date, no original information …but the prices is acceptable.

According to market survey’s result, in recent Mid Autumn Festival season, manufacturers was not pay their attentions on retails markets, the colorful Moon cake kiosks at the stress corners is just for trademark advertising purpose ( don’t care about turnover). The target what they are looking for is foreign companies (especially Asia companies), they are profitable markets as the ordered quantity for presenting to their partners or employee is too much.

Nowadays, Moon cakes have lost its real meaning; it contains hidden intention of donors. Moon cakes, one of children’s products, now to become a useful tool for adult in business, relationships…and leave children’s reach.

Mid-Autumn Festival now also have degreased its ancient feature because of industrialization and modernization, in the past lanterns are made bamboo( the frame), the center is made of a multi-colored plastic material. A candle holder is located in the center so that children can put a candle inside the lantern and light it in the dark night. It’s so glistery... But now, more than 80% lanterns which were sold on the market are made by plastic with light bulb inside, imported from China. The shapes also changed so much to be suitable for modern children demands. They are supper man, famous carton character: Mickey, Winne The Pooh, Snoopy, Doremon …instead of star, carp, lotus…

Glow: anh sang ruc ro, su phat sang

Prestigious: co uy tin

Donor: nguoi tang, nguoi bieu

Glistery: long lanh, long lay

1/ What do you think about Mid-Autumn Festival nowadays? How many percentage for children and how many percentage for adult?

2/ What will you do in this Mid-Autumn Festival? Have you ever think that you will give a high-cost Moon cake box to your boss or someone with intention is hidden inside?

3/ If you were president of big company, you received Anco King Moon cake from your partner who want to become one of material supplier for your company , what do you think and what will you do?

4/ What do you think about the poor children in Mid-Autumn Festival? Do you have some suggestion to give the smile and happiness for them on this Children festival?

English Learning:

Interjections Hi! That's an interjection. :-)

"Interjection" is a big name for a little word. Interjections are short exclamations like Oh!, Um or Ah! They have no real grammatical value but we use them quite often, usually more in speaking than in writing. When interjections are inserted into a sentence, they have no grammatical connection to the sentence. An interjection is sometimes followed by an exclamation mark (!) when written.

Here are some interjections with examples:

interjection	meaning	example
ah	expressing pleasure	"Ah, that feels good."
	expressing realization	"Ah, now I understand."
	expressing resignation	"Ah well, it can't be heped."
	expressing surprise	"Ah! I've won!"
alas	expressing grief or pity	"Alas, she's dead now."
dear	expressing pity	"Oh dear! Does it hurt?"
	expressing surprise	"Dear me! That's a surprise!"
eh	asking for repetition	"It's hot today." "Eh?" "I said it's hot today."
	expressing enquiry	"What do you think of that, eh?"
	expressing surprise	"Eh! Really?"
	inviting agreement	"Let's go, eh?"
er	expressing hesitation	"Lima is the capital of...er...Peru."