The Star-Lantern Parade
A free Mid-Autumn Festival coloring page. US Letter, portrait, ready to print.
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From the story “The Star-Lantern Parade” in Once Upon a Mid-Autumn Moon in Vietnam — eleven bedtime tales for ages 4–10, each with a word search and a coloring page of its own.
Leading from the front
A long, winding ribbon of children carries glowing star lanterns through the streets under the full moon. That is the picture, and it is the rước đèn, the lantern parade, from the story.
Huy has the biggest star lantern in town and shoves to the front to lead. Out there it is lonely: nobody to sing with, no faces to see, a dark street ahead. He drifts back into the middle, where the singing is. The parade, the story says, was "never about who walked first."
Rước đèn, the lantern parade
The rước đèn is the heart of Tết Trung Thu in Vietnam. Children walk the streets under the full moon singing the festival song, which Huy could not do from the front.
Where do you walk?
- Would you walk at the front, the middle or the back of a parade? Why?
- What could Huy see and hear from the middle that he could not from the front?
- Trace the winding line of children with a finger. Where do you think it ends?
One child at a time
A winding line is easy to lose your place in, so finish one child and lantern before starting the next. Give each lantern its own color and the parade becomes a string of lights.