Children enjoy colourful decorative items during a mid-autumn festival in Hà Nội. A special cultural programme themed 'Lưu Trăng Phố Cổ 2026' (Preserving Old Quarter Full Moon 2026) will begin this month in the capital city, particularly around Hoàn Kiếm Lake and the Old Quarter. — Photo bvhttdl.gov.vn

HÀ NỘI — A special cultural programme themed Lưu Trăng Phố Cổ 2026 (Preserving Old Quarter Full Moon 2026) will begin this month in the centre of Hà Nội to celebrate the traditional mid-autumn festival 2026.

The programme, organised by the Management Board of Hoàn Kiếm Lake and Hà Nội Old Quarter, will run from August 27 to September 30, at six heritage sites, centres, and cultural spaces in the capital, particularly around Hoàn Kiếm (Returned Sword) Lake and the Old Quarter.

It is designed as a 'heritage-focused experiential journey' that connects heritage sites with artisans, researchers, artists, and the public, according to organisers.

The activities in each space, which is designed as a 'storytelling station', will showcase the specific Mid-Autumn Festival’s cultural significance and meaning.

Those held at the Old Quarter Cultural Exchange Centre, at 50 Đào Duy Từ Street, will recreate an agricultural and wet-rice farming setting, introducing the significance of the full moon of the eighth lunar month and the traditional values ​​of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

An exhibition scheduled to take place at the Centre for Art and Culture, at 22 Hàng Buồm Street, will present popular traditional Mid-Autumn Festival toys, figurative arts, folk games, Vietnamese tea culture and creative experiential activities.

Meanwhile, a cultural space at the Heritage House, 87 Mã Mây Street, will tell a story of the typical Mid-Autumn Festival within Hà Nội families through the Đón Ttrăng (Welcoming the Moon) exhibition, as well as experiences involving mooncake making and traditional handicrafts.

A venue at 40 Lãn Ông Street, which is famous for traditional medicine, serves as a bridge connecting Mid-Autumn culture with folk knowledge, medicinal teas, agarwood tea and herbal products.

The programme will present a creative space dedicated to traditional lion dancing at the Hồ Gươm Cultural Information Centre, 2 Lê Thái Tổ Street. It will also display works by pupils and students, and host community-oriented experiential activities.

The historic site at 28 Hàng Buồm Street will feature a cultural space titled Hương Trầm Với Trăng Xưa (Agarwood Fragrance and the Moon of Yore), evoking the beauty of agarwood incense during the moonlit season of reunion.

According to the organisers, rather than hosting separate events in separate locations, they will link them into a unified journey that allows the public to gradually explore the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival with diverse cultural facets.

This also enables the management board to connect tangible and intangible heritage, artisans and the community, and traditional knowledge with contemporary creativity, thereby making heritage values ​​accessible through forms that resonate with modern life.

The organisers encourage young people, particularly students, to engage in creative works inspired from heritage materials. Through this, the young generation can not only inherit and interact with traditional values ​​but also explore them, express their own perspectives, and participate in the continuation and preservation of cultural traditions.

A highlight of the programme is the Đêm hội Trăng Rằm (Mid-Autumn Festival Night) procession on pedestrian streets around Hoàn Kiếm Lake, taking place at 8pm on September 25 – the full moon night of the eighth lunar month.

The procession starts from the stage in front of the Hoàn Kiếm Lake Cultural Information Centre, 2 Lê Thái Tổ and marches through the streets around the lake. Traditional Mid-Autumn Festival lanterns in the shapes of lion heads, festival flags and characters in popular folk stories and the participation of artisans, students, members of social organisations, residents and tourists will contribute to recreating a true atmosphere of a traditional lantern procession in the capital.

Through the programme, the organisers said they wish to implement the task of preserving and promoting heritage values ​​in the direction of linking heritage with community life, contributing to helping the public directly learn, experience and participate in cultural transmission and inheritance.

Traditional values ​​are not only preserved as memories of the past but continue to be practised, transmitted and created in contemporary life. — VNS