Tet Trung Thu 2012

This past weekend was the Vietnamese holiday: Tet Trung Thu - or the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. The holiday celebrates children! I love the toys that are sold for this holiday...

(This is on my drive to/from work...)

The traditional 'toys' for this holiday are the colorfully painted lanterns. Candles are put inside the lanterns and a procession is set up in neighborhoods... with children carrying their lanterns. The light represents brightness and the procession symbolizes success in school.

There was a 'shop' set up in my neighborhood selling the toys, lanterns, and mooncakes.
(I taste tested a mooncake last year... and once was enough. There are many different kinds/flavors. Some have eggs inside! They are surprisingly heavy... and quite tasteless.)

A tank lantern...

I bought myself this fish lantern ($2.00).

Last year I bought a rooster lantern (which sit on top of my microwave)...

And Phuong, the library assistant last year, was very excited... since SHE had a rooster lantern one year when she was a child. She said that her dad had chosen the rooster for her.

The lanterns have are carried by a wooden stick, tied to the lantern by string.