VIETNAM Parish Makes Mid-Autumn Festival Come Alive For People Who Could Not Afford To Celebrate

Posted: 29th September 2005

TAY NINH, Vietnam (UCAN) -- Poor people in a part of southern Vietnam were able to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival this year with "mooncakes," presents and festivities, thanks to the efforts of the local parish.

Early on Sept. 17 morning, the day before the festival this year, more than 100 people representing 100 families went to the Hiep Thanh parish church to receive presents. They traveled up to 10 kilometers.

Anna Hieu, 83, struggling with a present package, happily told UCA News, "This year children and we adults are all able to celebrate the festival."

Father Thomas Le Phat Truong, the parish priest, told UCA News he was able to give the presents thanks to benefactors' support. Each family, regardless of religion, was given 20 kilograms of rice, 10 packets of instant noodles, half a kilogram of monosodium glutamate, half a kilogram of sugar, a bottle of soy sauce, a tube of toothpaste, a toothbrush and 50,000 dong (about US$3).

Many people, visibly moved, said it was not the first time they received gifts from the parish, but the presents were larger than expected.

Squatting in a corner of the rectory yard, a 79-year-old woman clutching her bag of presents in one hand and a 50,000-dong bill in the other told UCA News the food was enough for her and her grandchild for a month. She said she would use the money to buy a mooncake since she had not eaten one for 20 years.

Mooncakes come with a variety of fillings such as sweet lotus-seed or almond paste, ham and duck-egg yolks, the latter highly prized and expensive. They are associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival, held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese lunar calendar.

Hieu said the people are too poor to buy the treats. During past festivals, she added, "even children did not have mooncake, let alone adults."

According to Father Truong, 38, his parish has about 540 Catholics, most of whom work as hired laborers or have seasonal jobs. They harvest rice, collect latex from rubber trees and sell lottery tickets. Families typically have five-to-seven members, and many live on boats. In many cases they are immigrants from other places and do not have permanent resident permits, so their children cannot go to school.

The parish is in Go Dau district, 20 kilometers from Tay Ninh, a town near the Cambodian border. The town is about 1,800 kilometers south of Ha Noi.

On Sept. 17 in the evening, 100 children from single-parent families, families with many children or families without permanent resident permits gathered in the church compound to sing songs and play games before receiving clothes and sweets as festival presents.

Joseph Nguyen Van Phuong, 8, told UCA News the festival was "very joyful" this year. "I have presents and new clothes to go to school," he said, explaining that in the past he had to wear old clothes even for a new school year because his parents could only afford only to pay his school fees and buy him notebooks.

Mai Xuan Hiep, 15, said his family of six live on a small boat and his parents earn a living by trading in discarded items.

For the Mid-Autumn Festival in past years, he recalled, he and his brothers and sisters would turn beer cans into lanterns and hang them on the bow of their boat. Then they would listen to their mother tell tales of Chu Cuoi, the boy who went to the moon, and Chi Hang Nga, the moon fairy. This year he and his mother went to the church to receive the presents.

Father Truong said he had not seen children celebrate the festival so merrily since he started his ministry at the parish eight years ago. Previously he could give them only some candy.

As children were holding hands and singing, the priest spoke of his plan to have many more poor children celebrate the festival in the future.

Seeing the children holding their "precious" mooncakes in their hands, the priest said with a sigh, "They are still so young, but they have to work hard." He explained that some have to sell lottery tickets or help collect rubber latex after school hours, and they drop out of school after sixth or seventh grade to help their families earn a living.

"Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival is something they have never dreamed of," he added.

Father Truong said he also gives presents donated by benefactors to poor people on Christmas and Lunar New Year every year.

The pastor recalled that when he first came to the parish, it had been without a resident priest for 20 years and had only about 100 parishioners. Many former Catholics converted to Cao Dai, a religion that was founded in Vietnam and has its headquarters in Tay Ninh. The parish still does not have any catechists, so he teaches hymns and catechism to the community by himself.

Even though the parish church, built in 1950, has been deteriorating, Father Truong said he gives priority to improving people's life.

Article Source: UCANEWS