VietNamNet Bridge – Major mask festivals will be organized in Hanoi on September 4 and HCMC on September 10 to welcome the Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the eighth month in lunar calendar.

Kids admire colorful masks made for the Mid-Autumn Festival in Hanoi in 2015 – Photo: Courtesy of organizers

The festival was launched by Cung Be Sang Tao (to be creative with kids) group to help promote traditional culture among children and adults via educational and arts activities.

The upcoming festivals will take place at the Literature Temple in Hanoi and the HCMC Finer Arts Museum in HCMC’s District 1. Kids will be taught how to make masks and participate in many games and arts activities, as well as create colors on paper fans.

Thang Bom, which is a popular character in Vietnam’s folk story, will celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival together kids in Hanoi and HCMC in a lantern parade. Visitors will have an opportunity to know about the arts of making masks in the world, especially African masks.

The organizer will give gifts to the best masks.

The masks made by kids, students and artists will be donated to child patients at the central children’s hospital in Hanoi to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The organizer will put on a small-scale mask festival in mid September at a center for disabled children in Soc Son in Hanoi. The center is home to less fortunate kids aged between 6 and 18. Alpha Books and Tre Publishing House will grant a book shelve to a school for disabled children in Soc Son District.

The organizer looks to cooperate with more schools, cultural centers, companies and publishing houses to expand the cultural activity to raise public awareness of heritage preservation.

The non-profit program is organized by individuals, companies, parents, art clubs for kids and members of Cung Be Sang Tao group that consists of lecturers at the Vietnam Fine Arts University.

Previously, Cung Be Sang Tao hosted a mask making festival on the Mid-Autumn Festival and a painting festival on the Lunar New Year 2015 (Tet) for kids in Hanoi.

SGT