The Mid-Autumn Lantern Parade in Tuyen Quang – Get back to our childhood

Trung Thu Festival until now was became the Tuyen Quang personal trade name. Autumn comes, the waving October, the streets began to be splendid with a lot of lanterns is the time to pack your luggage to go back to Tuyen Citadel to take a step back to the past!

I got to know about Tuyen Quang Mid-Autumn Latern Parade via one of my seasoned friend. The story began when the local turnt the Traditional activity for children to an impression street festival for everyone urged me to set off!

Nguồn: Hùng Sói (youtube)

Nguồn: Minh Hải (youtube)

Tuyen Quang  (Tuyên Quang) is a province that belong to Northwest Vietnam mountainous region, is the place where carries famous Tan Trao historical monument.

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UPDATE: MID-AUTUMN IN TUYEN QUANG 2020 WAS BEEN CANCELED BECAUSE OF COVID-19

Mid-Autumn Festival (Trung Thu) happens in the full-moon day of LunarAugust every year, is the 15th– the middle day of this month, the day that the moon become circular and bright the most. Tet Trung Thu (Mid-Autumn Festival) is the East Asia festivities included China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan, North Korea etc… For a long time this was considered as the Tet of children. The child will be presented toys, in general it will be star-shaped lantern, Mid-Autumn Festival mask, rotating lamp, water-gun,toy figurine … Associate with the festival is the specific cuisine – Moon cake such as sticky rice cake and pie.

According to traditional, in the full-moon night, the local will show up the banquets and feasts forappreciating the moon. And then they will stand in line to parade the lantern around the village and the place where they are living. When I was a kid, the lantern parade was considered as the treasure hunting game of the West. Cos at that time didn’t have many electric light as nowadays, a night climbing to discover, thread high-rise building way with cousin and friend was a blast! Formerly, we raced against each other to make the lantern by carving the washing-power, glued on paper…to parade a week ahead tirelessly!

The Tet Trung Thu is happening in the middle of Autumn, when the farmer has just harvested and off to relax and have fun.

The beginnings is a construction of small plan in common residential quarter groups in age-old Trung Thu occasion. Each group planned, invested, created a giant lantern to welcome in the full-moon Moon. After years organized, the scale of this festival becomes larger and larger, spread out to the entire provincial, everyone is looking forward for it. Beside the major night, there are also the “warm up”, “essay”, the pioneers one paraded first to show hearty atmosphere. Close to the “silk burst open” so the enormous lantern carriages are almost finished, glistening to march past then the festival was lengthened step by step. The widespread fame, it didn’t take a long time for the local, the four cardinal points tourists come to Tuyen Quang for appreciating the lantern to welcome Trung Thu.

The authorities saw that this culture activity is contributing to build up their native land so they came forward to support, arranging them more closely and systematic. As desire to transferTuyen Quang Lantern Paradebecome the unique trade name of the province, this nearly year, Trung Thu become the animated eventfulTuyen Rampart Festival,extended roughly 2 weeks before August full-moon and draw the travelers all our country. This is a chance for economy, regional cultures to expand, and also the opportunity to relax and have fun for everybody.

The Tuyen Quang Lantern Parade is different from another Flower Garlands and coloured lanterns Festival that hung in a night in others place in Vietnam and foreign countries such as China, Japanese. Cos those Festival was organized in a fixed place with a lot of luxury designed lanterns, while the Parade one was the moving giant lanterns carriage, marched past around the city, due to traditional Trung Thu (Mid-Autumn Festival) in Vietnam.

Instead of the luxurious lantern carriage, multiple kinds of form, each dragon scale was meticulous outworked, each bamboo piece was sharpened just for displaying in a few days. Then today, the products of the elderly ruled the roost everywhere in the lane in numerous days. The children is as freely for running here and there, the teenagers taking photos incessantly!

Not all the lanterns was brought into the world by craftsman. The knead matter by the amateur hands but skillful that made them became more and more meaningful. Because they are the spirit child that was tempered by the indulgence and happiness. Obviously in the process of being grown-up, professional day by day, with the qualified worker hands, but the value of those lanterns has never changed.

After a lot of time missing the plan to go to Tuyen Quang in the Mid–Autumn festival, that year, finally I got my own Mid-Autumn Festival at the weekend 7 days before the formal one. This was my solo trip combined to visit the historical monument in 2 days 1 night in Tuyen Quang.

To Tuyen Quang you had to go to My Dinh bus station, Tuyen Quang is about 130km separate from Hanoi, it takes over 3 hours to be there. The price for passenger bus is 4-5  USD/person. The latest trip in a day is at 8pm. There are a lot of bus, almost 5-10mins/ trip at any time.

I have some Tuyen Quang friends. So I was noticed about the run out of room phenomenon here. Because of traveling is not yet expand, during the festival, there is no balance between demand and supply. You had better to try to be there in the middle of the weekdays and be the first ones to prevent yourselves from scrambling and narrow. Cos the sumptuous lanterns parade and deal out happens every night!

In the first instance, I tried Couchsurfingbut at that time in Tuyen Quang just had 2 friends and they were offline in a few days so I contacted no one. I joined the Couchsurfing community for a long time but have never tried this form. Couchsurfing is a community where members all over the world can ask for staying at others’ house as guest or just for meeting, exchanges, join any event that organized by another members or self-arranged. Especially when you are in the backpacking tour, this form helps another members significant save money. Because the essence of backpacking tour is you need a place to take a rest and sleep in the evening, and jubilant discovery in daytime.

I switched to Homestay project, but this form is same here, not in development. I joined some regional groups to ask for, but the price is as pricey as hotel.

In the last minutes, I was looking around to find the small hotel, after 10 calls to the Center hotels, I reserved a hotel nearby the center, close to towards 6, the bus station with only 8 USD/day and night.

In the morning, the bus started at 7am, I arrived to Tuyên Quang at 11am to check in, get lunch and take a bus to Na Hang.

Na Hang, in the language of the Tay people in Tuyen Quang meant “the last paddy-field”. This is the over 21.000 ha area nature reserve, with the multiform of natural scenery, rich of flora and animal, included 8000 ha are for the extensive surface of Na Hang lake. Na Hang is 110 km separate from Tuyen Quang, the passenger car took 3 hours driving. That day was my reckless one, I just planned in a day trip then leave to be in time for the Mid-Autumn Parade.

I should have sailed to visit Na Hang lake, there were a lot of small rocky mountains in side the lake, extremely gigantic if the time is commodious.

The ticket costs 3 USD/person. The bus drove by a roundabout route in the city roughly an hour and then heading to the true journey.

On the way I kept falling drowsing because the deprived of sleep. However, I didn’t forget to talk to the student passenger that sat next to me. She is studying far away from home, and on the way to getting back to her hometown at the weekend. I asked her to remind me to get out when the bus is closed to my place. I asked her about her life living away from home, just a secondary pupil but she is a self-made one…

The Mid-Autumn Lanterns making movement is now broken out throughout Tuyen Quang. When on the way I saw a lot of incomplete models or finished that were put up in the middle of the courtyard, were carefully guarded. That pupil said, every district, every township has their own regroup and parade for themselves.

Na Hang Lake carries out the dark green color as the limpid brine. The desolate lake in the afternoon showed a few parking boat on it. If there is any tourist wanna pay for a visit, the boat will start.

Arrived at 4 pm, and the latest one was 4.30 pm so I was on a hurry to enjoy the Na Hang lake, and Thac Mo Fall. With a rapid step at 4.10 pm, the bus left for all that!

This is the district of mountainous region, this is the unique public bus.

Yes that was true, you didn’t make fault, I had no bus to go home!

To be continue…

Read more:

Rước Đèn Trung Thu ở Tuyên Quang – Trở lại tuổi thơ (Vietnamese Version)

The Mid-Autumn Lantern Parade in Tuyen Quang – Get back to our childhood

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