A full-moon festival for children

Mid-Autumn Festival arrived! The streets are bright with lights, the atmosphere was bustled by drums of lion dances. Children received gifts, lanterns from grandparents and parents. However, somewhere there were still misfortunes due to poverty. In these days, in addition to the care of the authorities, there were also kind hearts that brought meaningful mid-autumn festival to children having special circumstances.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival with poor children.

A warm Mid-Autumn Festival

The stage for the full-moon festival was beautifully decorated, but unfortunately it was raining too heavily. So nearly 300 orphans, poor families were guided to pagoda to receive gifts. Innocence, delight, and joy were the mood of these children on that day as holding candle-lit lanterns in their hands. Charitable group “Bo De Dao Trang” Pagoda (Binh Chuan Ward, Thuan An Town) arranged a very warm night for children at this temple.

Charitable group “Bo De Dao Trang” has up to 400 members. This volunteer group is very enthusiastic in social work. In addition to organizing events at Bo De Pagoda, this group also participates in charitable activities inside and outside the province. With their contribution, the group has donated more than VND 500 million to charitable activities in recent years. Monk Thich Nu Tu Thao of Bo De Pagoda said most of the members actively participated in voluntary activities. Every member was in charge of one stage, such as decorating, preparing water, food, making lanterns together, calling for more than 300 moon cakes and lanterns for children to have fun on this festival night. Everyone was happy when they did good things for children.

Officials and physicians of Thuan An Medical Center are making lanterns for children.

There is another charitable group “Hac Giay” in Binh Duong. The group leader is Luu A Sach. The total number of team members is now more than 40. The oldest member is 53 years old and the youngest is now 18 years old. They come together because they share the goal of helping difficult and unhappy lives. The group members come from different classes, like doctors, teachers, businessmen, students... One good thing from this group is that they did not receive money from benefactors to buy lanterns, but asked for old books, calendars, CDs etc. to make themselves lanterns. These handmade lanterns were very beautiful, very charming. The members had prepared for months for materials to make lanterns after working or school time. Every night they made a few dozen in order to have enough hundreds of lanterns for 4-5 shows on annual mid-autumn festival. This year, the group came to poor children in An Son Commune (Thuan An Town), orphans in Di An Town, Tan Uyen Town, and wandering children in Thu Dau Mot City.

Another volunteer group is “Vang Trang Khuyet” in Thuan An Town. Members of this group are LGBT people. Their deeds are precious and admirable to give children a round full moon! This year, “Vang Trang Khuyet” group called for contributions to give gifts to more than 100 orphans at Duc Quang orphanage in Ben Tre Province. Children were really happy and touched as taking part in games and receiving gifts from Binh Duong young ones…

The meaning from given lanterns

On this Mid-Autumn Festival, in addition to charitable groups, there were also movements of making lanterns for poor children. It can be said that lanterns always leave a deep impression in the childhood of many people whenever Mid-Autumn Festival comes. Therefore, many lanterns were made to be meaningful gifts for many children in difficult circumstances.

Officials and physicians of Thuan An Town Medical Center also bought materials to make lanterns. At 12am, they were completely wrapped up in assembling beautiful plastic lanterns for children. Small talks and laughs made the atmosphere more exciting. They are officials and physicians, who are only familiar with the examination of patients, but these days, they show their skills in making lanterns. It was not simple to make hundreds of lanterns. Each of the lanterns was different from electronic lanterns sold at markets, because these were handmade, inexpensive but very meaningful. The maker devoted all his heart to have these lanterns. Therefore, making mid-autumn lanterns for poor and disadvantaged children always has a great meaning. Their motivation for this was: "Happiness as seeing children’s smiles".

Nguyen Thi Thanh Uyen, Secretary of grassroots Youth Union of Thuan An Town Medical Center, said: “On every mid-autumn festival, our Youth Union posts information on Facebook and Zalo for officials and doctors to come here and contribute their efforts to make lanterns. This year, the center made 700 lanterns for poor children, children of workers, and small patients at the center”.

Having a lantern to celebrate the full moon festival is a wish of every child, especially poor children. Vo Thi Tra My, youth union member of Thuan An Town Medical Center, shared: “When I was young, I felt a shortage, on every Mid-Autumn Festival, children wanted to hold a lantern to hang out with their friends. Moreover, parents worked most of the time, and had little time to take care of their children mentally. So we often made our own bamboo and paper lanterns. And now when I think of radiant child smiles on the full moon night, my heart is full of excitement and desire to make laterns and give to children”. These lanterns brought much joy to children, were really meaningful gifts on the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Reported by Q.Nhu, K.Ha – Translated by Ngoc Huynh