I remember the first Thanksgiving in Long Xuyen. I was so homesick. The air was crisp and images of family gatherings from years past came crawling back into the front of my mind, and the nostalgia was so overpowering that I could hardly concentrate on my work and life in Vietnam. I didn’t think it would happen in reverse when I returned to the US, but last week I found myself missing “Trung Thu,” the Mid-Autumn Festival, celebrated during the full-moon of the 8th lunar month of the year. Memories of lantern-making with students, red and yellow “Kinh Do” mooncake stands around the city, and an atmosphere of playful exhileration that is lacking here at this time of year. What to do? Ben told me about the Mid-Autumn Festival in Chinatown. I was all over that. Enjoy some pictures, as they tell the scene more thorougly than my words ever could. It was a good dose of homesickness medication for me 
The streets were packed: just like Trung Thu streets or Tet Markets in Vietnam.
Remember the phrase “cang dong cang vui” (the more the merrier)? It was so vui. It was so vui that these poor teenagers (below) had to essentially restrain people from trying to cross the street because the cars were getting a little annoyed. Did people pay attention? Heck no!
Then the parade came through. Did people pay attention to the parade? Kind of. The parade was on the same street as the market, so some folks came through to push the pedestrians aside so the parade could proceed. Images of the parade:
This was hilarious. There were cheerleaders that looked like “bobbleheads.” I’m not kidding!
That’s about it. Hope the movie works!!
