Tag: holiday

Mid-Autumn Lion Dance, Hoi An

Monday evening was the culmination of the Mid-Autumn Festival (Tết Trung Thu) in Vietnam with a huge full moon in the sky and troupes of lion dancers on the streets entertaining holiday crowds.

The image above shows a small troupe performing along the street in front of a restaurant. In addition to the restaurant’s customers, a crowd of passers-by has gathered to watch the show. The lion below – two young men standing one on top of the other – was part of a well-known act that attracted a large crowd for its performance. The troupe arrived with two truckloads of equipment that it set up before the performance got underway. The photo shows only the first of several acts. I tried but failed to get this pair jumping along the row of pillars visible at the bottom of the image. I was standing on a tiny patch of grass amongst a big crowd and unfortunately could not get the combination of movement, light and reasonable focus needed to make an acceptable image. Feeling frustrated and claustrophobic, I decided to leave, figuring I could try for the motion image again next year.

Flowers at the Gate, Hoi An

To celebrate Tết, Vietnamese decorate the entrance ways to their homes and places of business with flowers, in some cases with two simple flower pots on either side of the entrance, in other cases with elaborate flower displays that can transform otherwise grey Hoi An streets lined with ramshackle buildings into rainbows of color.