If you wanna get lit, there's no better way than going to a Lantern Full Moon Festival in Hoi An, Vietnam.
I've literally never been cool enough to say things like "get lit," so I've been waiting for the perfect excuse to slip that in somewhere!
There's a lantern festival every month of the year practically, on the day of the full moon. If you want to know the schedule because you're planning a trip to Vietnam, just do a quick google search and the top result will have the updated schedule.
If you want to go this year and your fingers are too lazy to google, here's the schedule for the rest of the year:
I'd go every month if I could, because I have serious shiny object syndrome and it doesn't get shinier than this!
For locals, the festival is all about honoring their ancestors with offerings (flowers, food, fruit, fake money).
I saw these offerings on the streets in Hanoi as well, but didn't know what it was about until I learned about this festival.
It's a religious thing where the locals "send money" to their ancestors through burning it. Looks like they're "sending" US money here haha. I guess their ancestors don't want any Vietnamese Dong?
I think they're going to be disappointed once they find out it's fake money, either way 😝.
The people in Hoi An hang the lanterns because they're a symbol of good luck, so it's important to hang them in front of your house if you want to get lucky (maybe hang them in the bedroom? Haha sorry, that's horrible).
I think it works. The town is lucky as far as bringing in a lot of tourist money, and not only that, they have an extra beautiful place to live in!
Other towns need to step it up a notch to keep up!
Hoi An is like a first date type of town. It's dressed up. It looks pretty. It's certainly impressive. It tries to look nice in hopes of getting a second date.
A lot of other cities are like a couple that's been married for awhile. They let themselves go. They get fat. They stop trying/caring about appearances.
I think every town should be a first date town full of cool murals, lights, fun buildings and unique architecture.
Maybe it's better than some places are just "normal" or I'd probably never be able to focus again.
Anyway, there are always lanterns all around the town, even on non-festival days. But for the festival, you can get a boat ride down the river and you let a paper luminary float down the river.
Tradition is to make a wish when you put it out onto the water.
They also have a parade for the festival, gold dragons included!
And gold dragons are the EPITOME of luck! #LuckGoals
And of course, there are lanterns that are totally LIT:
Hope you enjoyed getting lit with me!
<3, @nomadicsoul
