Têt-Trung-Thu – Mid-Autumn feast – an annual national celebration in Vietnam and China falls on the 15 day of the eighth month in the Lunar Calendar. It celebrates the annual rice harvest and, in the Gregorian calendar used in the West, falls between mid September and early October. This year it was September 12 which was also a full moon. Every year children enjoy eating typical 'Moon Cakes' made of rice and taking part in traditional singing and dancing.
According to the statistics of NGOs, in Vietnam today over 50,000 children are living in the difficult circumstances. This is why the local Catholic community plans festivities for less fortunate children, orphans, children who are blind or HIV positive. In Ho Chi Minh City hundreds of children, from Catholic and non Catholic families, gathered together for the Festival at the parish church of Our Lady Queen of Peace. In the parish area there are Catholics, Christians of other denominations, Buddhists and persons with no religion and all live peacefully in harmony.
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Hải Phòng diocese, in northern Vietnam about 100 km from Hanoi, which has invested much energy in children's catechism classes, marked the Mid Autumn Festival involving less fortunate children in social activities and special games organised with the help of diocesan Caritas office.
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| Têt-Trung-Thu celebration, Vietnam |
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