HA NOI — This year’s Mid-Autumn Festival, organised by the Viet Nam Museum of Ethnology (VME) from September 12-14, will feature an entertainment programme for children and families.

As in previous years, there will be performances and workshops on how to make toys and play traditional games, including new ones.

Children as well as adults are expected to enjoy the popular traditional game mua lan (lion dance) which will be performed by groups of Vietnamese, Hoa (Chinese origin) people and Khmers from the southern province of Bac Lieu.

The Khmer artists will perform their acclaimed lion dance. showcased at the Smithsonian Festival in the US in 2007, and in the Vietnamese Culture Festival in Singapore in May and June of this year.

Artisans and craftsmen from Ha Noi and Hai Duong will perform and instruct in the making of Mid-Autumn festival toys such as lanterns shaped as stars, rabbits and monk-hats.

Meanwhile, VME staff will teach children to play traditional games such as kite-flying, walking on stilts, casting and catching stones, skipping rope, tug-of-war, bamboo bridge and more.

The children will compete for awards after playing.

They will also have the chance to operate water puppets on a miniature puppet stage organised by the Central Puppetry Theatre.

Meanwhile, the Ha Noi Old Quarter Mid-Autumn Festival opened last week in front of the Dong Xuan Market and will run till Sunday.

Many traditional activities, such as games, toy selling and cake making are expected to draw visitors to the festival.

Traditional Mid-Autumn Festival pictures and documentaries will be introduced in Ancient House on 87 Ma May Street, Ha Noi, until September 14. — VNS