Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam: All About Tet Trung Thu 2026!

1. What is the Date of the Moon Festival in 2026?

The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, the night of the full moon, in many Asian countries. In 2026, the Moon Festival falls on Friday, September 25. In 2027, it falls on Wednesday, September 15. Because it follows the lunar calendar, the date moves each year, usually landing in September and sometimes in early October.

To see the festival atmosphere, plan to be in Vietnam during the one to two weeks before the full moon. During this season, streets and shops are adorned with bright red and yellow decorations, lanterns, and joyful markets. The atmosphere is exciting, with lion dances, cultural performances, and an abundance of mooncakes to savor.

2. The history of the moon festival in Vietnam

With a civilization built on rice farming for thousands of years, the Vietnamese hold various festivals following the lunar calendar to celebrate harvest prosperity.

The largest Vietnamese festival, Tet or the Lunar New Year, is tied to the start of the farming year, when fields were prepared for the new rice season.

A good harvest allowed farmers to avoid food shortages and have a stable financial situation. To celebrate rice and its nourishing and commercial virtues, the Vietnamese created the Harvest Festival, Tet Trung Thu.

You might wonder, what is the connection between the autumn full moon and rice harvests? Unlike the sun, the moon changes its face throughout the month and can even change shape from day to day. In Vietnamese tradition, the full moon is a symbol of unity and togetherness, which is why the festival is so closely linked to family reunion.

The bright full moon in mid-autumn, traditionally considered the brightest of the year, has even more significance as it represents the concept of completeness. Thus, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a perfect occasion to gather family members and celebrate a good agricultural harvest.

>>> Read more: 7 Amazing Places to Catch Stunning Rice Fields in Vietnam!

The Legend of Cuội 

Cuội, a woodcutter, discovered a magical tree that could revive the dead and used it to save many lives, later marrying a woman he brought back to life. In one popular version, after she was killed, his loyal dog gave up its own entrails to bring her back to life, but she became forgetful. One day, forgetting his warning to water the tree only with clean water, she used dirty water on it, causing it to fly into the sky, carrying Cuội to the moon where he has lived ever since.

3. Tet Trung Thu, the Children’s Festival in Vietnam

Observing the Mid-Autumn Festival in other Asian countries, the traditions and rituals seem quite similar. However, notable differences exist in Vietnam as Tet Trung Thu is both a reunion event and a festival dedicated to children.

Indeed, this day can remind us of Children’s Day because kids receive lovely gifts or new clothes from their parents. In the evening, under a shining moon, children parade through the streets singing and carrying colorful lanterns of various sizes and shapes, such as star, butterfly, or fish-shaped lanterns. The five-pointed star lantern (đèn ông sao), usually red, is the best-known symbol of the festival.

Good to know: The Mid-Autumn Festival usually falls in September, sometimes early October, a pleasant time to visit much of northern Vietnam.
The traditional lion dance (múa lân) is a Mid-Autumn highlight. Acrobatic dancers bring the lion to life with drumbeats, its big head and bulging eyes looking both playful and a little scary under the full moon. In the parade, a masked dancer as Ông Địa (the Earth God) entertains the crowd, especially children.
>>> Read More: Vietnamese Lion Dance

Afterward, families share a festive banquet of fruits, sweets, and, of course, mooncakes: the stars of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

4. The Moon Cake Festival

Moon cakes, known as “Banh Trung Thu” in Vietnamese, are directly associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam. Across the country, families celebrate Tet Trung Thu by placing fruit and moon cakes on the ancestral altar to express their gratitude.

The two most popular moon cakes are Bánh Dẻo (soft, sticky cakes with a glutinous rice crust) and Bánh Nướng (baked cakes with a golden crust). Shaped into rounds or squares, they feature intricate designs like flowers, carp, or geometric patterns. The fillings of Bánh Trung Thu come in a variety of sweet and savory options.

The savory moon cake recipe is more complex than the sweet one, consisting of a dozen ingredients such as pork fat, sausages, jams, and various types of seeds and nuts. The sweet filling, on the other hand, is made from a single ingredient: mung bean paste or lotus seed paste. The moon cake is usually cut into small pieces and shared among family members. This sweet cake is traditionally accompanied by a hot cup of green tea.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam, moon cakes are generally given as gifts to family and friends. However, the Vietnamese also exchange moon cakes between clients and colleagues to demonstrate loyalty, sincerity, and commitment.

5. Where to Visit in Vietnam During Tet Trung Thu?

• Hoi An Ancient Town

Hoi An is already known as the city of lanterns, with silk lanterns hanging along the streets of the Old Town all year round. At Mid-Autumn, lantern stalls, lion dances and children's parades add to the scene.

Hoi An also holds a lantern night in the Old Town on the 14th day of every lunar month, the eve of the full moon, when houses and shops are lit by lanterns and visitors release floating paper lamps on the river.

Around the Mid-Autumn full moon, the riverside streets are especially busy, and many visitors release floating lanterns on the water. Also, discover the craftsmanship of Vietnamese lantern-making and its secrets during your visit to Hoi An.

• Hanoi Old Quarter

As the millennial capital of Vietnam, Hanoi is one of the best places to see the traditions of the Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam.

During this period, you can experience the joyful ambiance of this festival in the Old Quarter, particularly on Hang Ma Street. This bustling street, renowned for selling all kinds of traditional decorations, lights up with numerous lanterns in various shapes.

• Chinatown (Cho Lon), Ho Chi Minh City

Like Hang Ma Street in Hanoi, Luong Nhu Hoc Street, known as the lantern street, in the Chinatown (Cho Lon) of Ho Chi Minh City is one of the busiest places during the Trung Thu Festival.

The street hosts hundreds of stalls selling all sorts of decorations for the festival, creating a very lively and colorful atmosphere.

With streets adorned with colorful lanterns, the vibrant lion dances are also an interesting aspect of the festival.

• The Northern mountainous regions

In years when the festival falls in September, it coincides with the rice harvest in the northern mountains. Terraced fields turn golden, the air is filled with the smell of ripe rice, and villages celebrate under the full moon.

>>> Explore the beauty of North Vietnam with us: Best Time to Visit North Vietnam in 2026

6. Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam 100 Years Ago

Color photographs of Mid-Autumn toys on sale in Hanoi, taken around 1915 by the French photographer Léon Busy, show what the festival looked like more than a century ago.

The Mid-Autumn toys, entirely handmade by Vietnamese ancestors, were intricate and aesthetically pleasing.
Besides the series on Mid-Autumn toys, Léon Busy also captured scenes of Hang Chen, Hang Thiec, Long Bien Bridge, Tran Vu Pagoda gate, the Temple of Literature, and Ngoc Son Temple in 1915. These autochromes are among the earliest color photographs of Hanoi.

Today, around 1,370 photographs and films of Vietnam by Léon Busy are preserved at the Albert-Kahn Museum in Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris, which has published much of the collection online.
Albert Kahn, a French banker passionate about color photography for its vivid representation of life, funded equipment and hired photographers to capture color images from around the world. Léon Busy was sent by the Albert Kahn Museum to Vietnam to document daily life in Northern Vietnam from 1914 to 1917, giving us the chance to see ancient Vietnam.

Closing Remarks

For unique experiences rich in Asian culture, visit Vietnam during this period to see children carrying lanterns, taste delicious moon cakes, and buy lanterns or beautiful traditional decorations. It is a particularly good time to travel with children.

If you want to introduce this famous festival to your children, check out our best family trips for ideas, and feel free to contact us if you have any questions!

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