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This annual Mid-Autumn Festival program offers a wide range of activities for children, residents, and visitors to the capital, including exhibitions, hands-on experiences in making traditional toys, and lion dance performances.

This annual Mid-Autumn Festival program offers a wide range of activities for children, residents, and visitors to the capital (Photo: QĐND)

The exhibition features two themes: the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival and the royal Mid-Autumn celebrations of the Ly Dynasty.

The “Traditional Mid-Autumn Festival” theme showcases a festive space filled with old-style toys such as lion drums, frog drums, paper masks, tin toys (tin boats, drumming rabbits, spinning butterflies, whistles), paper scholars, moon-gazing figurines, shadow lanterns, monk lanterns, star lanterns, and paper figurines. Particularly captivating are antique lantern models, painstakingly recreated by artisans from Thanh Oai Village based on photographic archives from the Quai Branly Museum and the École Française d’Extrême-Orient (France). These include drum lanterns, rabbit lanterns, star lanterns, fish-and-shrimp lanterns, and paired spinning lanterns, all crafted from Do paper or cellophane and vividly hand-painted to bring them to life.

Traditional Mid-Autumn Festival toy display space at Thang Long Imperial Citadel. (Photo: QĐND)

For the first time, the Thang Long–Hanoi Heritage Conservation Center is presenting the theme “Royal Mid-Autumn Festival of the Ly Dynasty,” featuring an interpretive exhibition on the imperial Mid-Autumn celebrations of the 11th – 12th centuries. The display includes panels with historical documents and reconstructed illustrations depicting festivities that took place more than 1,000 years ago at the royal court.

The exhibition space is highlighted by reconstructed artifacts that depict traditional scenes, such as boat races and water puppet performances, featuring soldiers and villagers. At its center stands the “Kim Ngao” - a mythical creature resembling a turtle with a dragon’s head, its golden body carrying three sacred mountains of Eastern legend: Bong Lai, Phuong Truong, and Doanh Chau.

The space glows with the timeless beauty of dozens of lanterns reflecting ancient cultural motifs, including carp lanterns warding off evil, carp transforming into dragons, dragon-phoenix lanterns, unicorn lanterns, and lanterns featuring peaches, pomegranates, and Buddha’s hand fruit. Once lost to time, these lanterns have been meticulously revived by cultural researcher Trinh Bach and artisan Nguyen Trong Binh, using traditional materials such as Do paper, silk paper, cellophane, bamboo frames, rattan, and natural paste.

These displays add to the uniqueness and appeal of the heritage site, offering visitors deeper insight into the intangible cultural values of the royal court and fostering stronger connections between heritage and the community. The exhibition runs from October 1.

Complementing the displays, there will also be lion dance performances and hands-on workshops on October 4–5, where visitors can try making traditional Mid-Autumn toys such as spinning lanterns, butterfly lanterns, star lanterns, rabbit lanterns, and decorating paper mâché masks and kites.

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