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Mid-Autumn Children’s Festival 2025

Celebrating Tết Trung Thu in Toronto: Honoring Tradition, Building Community

This year, VWAT Family Services was proud to once again bring the joy of the Mid-Autumn Children’s Festival, or Tết Trung Thu, to our community here in Toronto. Traditionally celebrated in Vietnam as the end of the harvest season and a time for families to gather, the festival continues to be one of the most beloved cultural celebrations for children. By creating this tradition here in Canada, we are helping to keep it alive for our younger generations, fostering connection, belonging, and pride in their heritage.

We were honoured to welcome distinguished guests to the celebration, including MP Judy Sgro, MP Chi Nguyen, Ontario’s Solicitor General Michael Kerzner, and Toronto City Councillor Anthony Peruzza. We were also thrilled to host MP Chi Nguyen, the first Vietnamese woman elected to Parliament. MP Judy Sgro and Councillor Anthony Peruzza are now like family to us, as they have supported and joined us at many of our events over the years. Their continued presence adds a special sense of closeness and recognition to our community celebrations.

This year’s celebration also included participation in the Moose Hide Campaign. Our staff and board members proudly wore moose hide pins and shared them with guests as a symbol of solidarity. The campaign, which began in British Columbia as an Indigenous-led grassroots movement, calls on men and boys to stand against violence towards women and children. Today, it has become a nationwide movement of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians dedicated to ending this violence. We were honoured to weave this meaningful campaign into our festival, highlighting our shared commitment to creating safer, more caring communities.

Of course, the heart of Tết Trung Thu is always the children. Families enjoyed a wide range of activities, including lantern making, paper mooncakes, colouring, balloon creations, face painting, and a crowd favorite—cotton candy! We opened with a traditional dragon dance and closed with a beautiful lantern procession, symbolizing hope and light. Throughout the afternoon, children delighted audiences with musical performances, traditional Vietnamese instruments, dances, martial arts showcases, and even special performances from our friends in the Korean and South Asian communities.

No celebration would be complete without food. Guests were treated to traditional Vietnamese dishes such as spring rolls and bánh bao, along with freshly made waffles throughout the day. The smell of warm food and sweet treats created a joyful, welcoming atmosphere for all.

This event would not have been possible without the incredible dedication of our youth volunteers. From setting up the venue and running the activity tables to preparing and distributing food and helping with clean-up, our volunteers poured their energy and enthusiasm into every detail. We are especially grateful to those who worked tirelessly in the kitchen preparing meals and waffles for our guests to enjoy. We also extend our sincere thanks to our sponsors, whose generous contributions made this festival possible.

Altogether, over 400 guests came together to celebrate Tết Trung Thu with us this year. It was a day filled with laughter, music, culture, and community—a beautiful reminder of the power of tradition to bring us together across generations.

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