Vietnam’s Mid-Autumn Festival

Every Vietnamese child dreams about an amazing Tết Trung Thu with his or her own brightly lit lantern and a belly full of mooncakes. Tết Trung Thu or Mid-autumn Festival, is also known in Vietnam as the “Children’s Festival.”

Vietnam’s Mid-autumn Festival best-known tale is about a man named Cuội who hung on to a magical banyan tree as it floated up to the moon. We say that if you look closely at the full moon, you can see the shadow of a man sitting under a tree. Children parade lanterns in the streets the night of Mid-autumn Festival to help light the way to earth for Cuội from the moon.

The celebration of the harvest is an important part of Tết Trung Thu, as many Vietnamese live in rural areas and work as farmers. Tết Trung Thu marks a joyous occasion when the work is finished and there’s time to spend with loved ones.

In the weeks before Tết Trung Thu, you will see and hear groups of lion dancers practicing on the streets. Mooncake stalls appear on every other corner, pop-ups with elaborately decorated boxes filled with a variety of mystery cakes and fillings. City districts team up with preparations of toys, lanterns and colourful masks in anticipation. The most popular Trung Thu lantern is a star made with red cellophane. You’ll see these lanterns for sale on streets all over Vietnam in the days leading up to the festival.

All across Vietnam, families welcome Tết Trung Thu by placing a five-fruit tray and cakes on our ancestral altar. We offer the food to our ancestors and worship, before feasting on mooncakes – usually outside under the light of the moon. Round or square, these cakes are moulded with elaborate details of flowers, carp and geometric patterns.

The two most common types are bánh dẻo (soft, sticky cakes with a mochi-texture) and bánh nướng (baked cakes with a thick wheat crust). Mooncakes in Vietnam come in a seemingly infinite variety of flavours, both sweet and savoury. Feel free to buy a box of mooncakes to enjoy yourself, or to share with your Vietnamese friends and hosts.

On the night of the full moon, children bearing brightly coloured lanterns form raucous processions and tour their neighbourhoods singing songs. You will see a male dancer wearing a round happy-faced mask that symbolises the moon. He urges the lion dancers on and delights the crowd with his comical moves. This is the Earth God, Ông Địa, who represents the fullness of the earth and reminds onlookers to give thanks for its bounty. Ông Địa always brings joy and puts a smile on every Vietnamese child's face. 

Lion dancing or múa lân is an essential element of the Mid-autumn festivities. Groups of children gather, each carrying a red lantern. Everyone sings along to the cheerful Mid-autumn Festival songs memorized since childhood. Excitement peaks when drumbeats ring out from down the dark street. The smaller kids shrink back and the older ones run forward as a mythical lion bursts into their courtyard, its giant head and sinuous body borne by a team of acrobatic dancers.

With its gaping mouth and protruding eyes, the lion is both comical and formidable. The dancers lunge closer to the crowd, making the kids scream and laugh at their antics. Under the light of the full moon, the lion’s red sequined body sparkles as it dances. For Vietnamese children, not much else beats this spectacular performance on the night of Trung Thu. 

Japan’s Ohigan

Ohigan is a Japanese Buddhist observance held twice a year, around the spring and autumn equinoxes, and lasts for seven days each time. Every September, as the heat of summer finally breaks, families across Japan sweep out to cemeteries carrying flowers, incense, and a plate of sweet rice cakes wrapped in red bean paste. Ohigan is observed twice a year, during both the spring and autumn equinoxes, and each observance lasts for seven days. This is Ohigan (the other shore), a Buddhist observance centered on the autumn equinox that turns a simple astronomical moment, the one day of the year when daylight and darkness are nearly equal, into a week set aside for honoring ancestors. It is one of Japan's oldest continuously practiced traditions, older in some ways than the country's more famous Obon festival, and it still shapes how millions of Japanese families spend the third week of September. Here is what Ohigan actually means, where it came from, and how it is observed today.

What Does "Ohigan" Mean?

Higan comes from the Sanskrit word paramita, meaning "the other shore," and it refers to the far bank of enlightenment in Buddhist teaching, as opposed to shigan, "this shore," the world of everyday suffering and attachment. Ohigan takes place twice a year, once around the spring equinox and once around the autumn equinox, each time lasting seven days: the equinox itself sits at the center, with three days on either side. The autumn instance is what most people mean when they talk about Ohigan in the context of ancestor remembrance, since it falls alongside Japan's official Autumnal Equinox Day (Shubun no Hi), a national holiday legally defined as a day to "respect ancestors and mourn the dead."

The History and Origins of Ohigan

Ohigan's roots are older than its Buddhist name suggests. Long before Buddhism arrived in Japan, farmers already treated the equinoxes as significant turning points, visiting ancestral graves in spring before planting and again in autumn before harvest, asking for the spirits' favor. When Buddhism took hold, this agrarian ancestor worship fused with the concept of the six paramitas, the perfections a practitioner cultivates on the path to the other shore, giving the custom its name and its philosophical framing.

The first recorded court ceremony tied to the equinox dates to the Heian period (794 to 1185 CE), when the imperial court held services referred to as Shuki Koreisai in autumn and Shunki Koreisai in spring, blending Shinto reverence for ancestral spirits with Buddhist ritual. The practice spread beyond the aristocracy during the Muromachi period as Buddhist temples popularized it among ordinary worshippers, and by the Edo period, visiting family graves during the equinox week had become a genuine folk custom nationwide, no longer confined to formal religious observance. In 1878, the Meiji government formalized the autumn ceremony as Shuki Koreisai, an occasion to honor past emperors alongside deceased family members. After the Second World War, Japan's postwar constitution required a clearer separation of religion and state, so in 1948 the holiday was renamed Shubun no Hi, Autumnal Equinox Day, and stripped of its explicit imperial framing even as the underlying custom of visiting graves continued almost unchanged.

Why the Equinox? Buddhist Symbolism and the Six Paramitas

The choice of the equinox is not incidental. On these two days of the year, the sun rises due east and sets due west, and in traditional Buddhist cosmology, the Western Pure Land, the realm reached upon enlightenment, sits directly along that path. With day and night in near-perfect balance, the equinox was long understood as the moment when the distance between this world and the other shore is at its shortest, making it the most auspicious time to reach out to those who have already crossed over.

Traditionally, each of the seven days of Ohigan corresponds to one of the six paramitas: generosity, moral discipline, patience, diligent effort, meditative concentration, and wisdom, with the equinox day itself set aside for reflecting on all six together. Few people today observe this practice formally day by day, but the underlying idea, that the period is meant for both remembrance and quiet self-examination, still informs how many families describe what the week is for.

How Ohigan Is Observed

Ohaka Mairi (Grave Visiting)

The central ritual of Ohigan is ohaka mairi, visiting the family grave. Families sweep away fallen leaves, pull weeds, and wash the headstone with water before setting out fresh flowers, usually chrysanthemums for the season, along with incense, and small offerings of rice, water, or sake. Multiple generations often make the trip together, sometimes traveling back to rural hometowns for the occasion, turning the visit into both a religious act and a family reunion.

Ohagi and Botamochi (Ritual Sweets)

No Ohigan observance is complete without ohagi, a soft ball of glutinous rice coated in sweetened azuki bean paste. The same sweet is called botamochi vs ohagi in spring, named for the botan (peony) blooming at that time of year, while the autumn version takes its name from hagi, the bush clover that flowers in September. Some recipes finish the rice ball in a coating of kinako (roasted soybean flour) instead of, or alongside, the classic anko exterior. The sweet is placed on the family altar or grave as an offering as much as it is eaten, since the deep red of the azuki paste has long been believed to ward off evil spirits, and the glutinous rice itself is a quiet nod of gratitude for the year's harvest.

How to Honor the Spirit of Ohigan at Home

You do not need a family grave in Japan, or even a Buddhist background, to take something from Ohigan. At its core, the custom is an invitation to pause during a seasonal turning point and think about the people who came before you. A small, quiet gesture, lighting a candle, setting out a photo, or simply taking a moment to remember someone, captures the spirit of the week without requiring the full ritual.

Food is an easy entry point too. Bokksu's Kinako Azuki Crunch, made with roasted soybean powder and freeze-dried azuki beans, draws on the exact same flavor pairing found in traditional kinako-dusted ohagi, giving you a genuine taste of the season's signature sweet without needing to prepare rice and red bean paste from scratch.

Ceremony Marking the Autumn Equinox

○ Homage (Recite the O-daimoku three times.)

○ Meditation on the Place of the Way

○ Taking Refuge in the Three Treasures

○ Invocation

We put our faith in

The Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni―Great Benevolent Teacher, World-Honored One;

The Tathagata Abundant Treasures, witness to the Lotus Sutra;

The separated embodiments of the Buddha in the ten directions in the past, present, and future;

The four great bodhisattvas: Superior Practice, Boundless Practice, Pure Practice, and Steadfast Practice;

The bodhisattva-mahasattvas: Manjushri, Universal Sage, Maitreya, and all other bodhisattva-mahasattvas;

Great Bodhisattva Nichiren, revered practitioner of the Lotus Sutra;

Founder Nikkyo, Great Teacher of the One Vehicle;

Cofounder Myoko, Bodhisattva of the Way of Compassion;

The guardian spirits of Rissho Kosei-kai;

And the countless heavenly spirits in the ten directions.

May you all be present among us and know our deep devotion.

Today, members of the [chapter name] Chapter, [Dharma center name], all of pure heart, have gathered to solemnly conduct this ceremony marking the [spring/autumn] equinox.

Here, we reverently pray that

All ancestors of every member of this Sangha;

All deceased members;

All those who have passed beyond, known and unknown to us, wherever they be; and especially [posthumous names/secular names], may delight in the taste of the Dharma through the sutra recitation of this service.

We earnestly pray that through the profound, sublime meaning of the Great Vehicle Sutra of the

Lotus Flower of the Wondrous Dharma, the buddhas and bodhisattvas, the guardian and heavenly spirits extend their hands of compassion, sympathy, liberation, and protection, as well as their guidance in all things.

(Strike the gong and recite the O-daimoku once.)

○ Opening Verse

○ Sutra Recitation

○ Universal Transfer of Merit

○ Recitation of the O-daimoku

○ Special Words to Transfer Merit

○ Transfer of Merit

Having respectfully recited the Great Vehicle Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wondrous Dharma, may we transfer its merits to and thus reciprocate the boundless compassion of

The Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni―Great Benevolent Teacher, World-Honored One;

The Tathagata Abundant Treasures, witness to the Lotus Sutra;

The separated embodiments of the Buddha in the ten directions in the past, present, and future;

The four great bodhisattvas: Superior Practice, Boundless Practice, Pure Practice, and Steadfast Practice;

The bodhisattva-mahasattvas: Manjushri, Universal Sage, Maitreya, and all other bodhisattva-mahasattvas;

Great Bodhisattva Nichiren, revered practitioner of the Lotus Sutra;

Founder Nikkyo, Great Teacher of the One Vehicle;

Cofounder Myoko, Bodhisattva of the Way of Compassion;

The guardian spirits of Rissho Kosei-kai;

The guardian spirits of [Dharma center name];

The guardian spirits of member families of Rissho Kosei-kai;

And the countless heavenly spirits in the ten directions.

(Strike the gong once.)

Now, at this ceremony marking the [spring/autumn] equinox, we express our sincere gratitude for the Buddha’s arrangement of this sutra recitation.

We reverently pray that through this recitation

All ancestors of every member of this Sangha;

All those who have passed beyond, known and unknown to us, wherever they be;

And especially to the deceased for whom we conducted this memorial service, may delight in the taste of the Dharma and quickly accomplish the wondrous fruit of Supreme Perfect Awakening.

We also earnestly pray that with the help of sagely guidance and boundless protection, all living beings may awaken to their buddha nature and world peace may be achieved.

○ Homage (Recite the O-daimoku three times.)

Notes

1. As for the Special Words to Transfer Merit, refer to the examples in the appendix.

2. “Incense offering” can be performed by the sutra recitation leader after the Special Words to Transfer Merit are stated.

Special Words to Transfer Merit for the Ceremony Marking the Autumn Equinox

Today, at this ceremony marking the [spring/autumn] equinox, we reverently address these words to the Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni―Great Benevolent Teacher, World-Honored One, all buddhas, bodhisattvas, and heavenly spirits.

Paramita is “the other shore,” that is, the wondrous realm of nirvana. We will depart this shore of suffering, and through perseverance in the bodhisattva practice of the Six Paramitas, reach the other shore of permanence, bliss, self, and purity, and enter the buddha land where we will attain buddhahood by accomplishing the Way. The practice of the Six Paramitas, which comprises generosity, precept keeping, forbearance, diligence, meditation and wisdom, is the essence of Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, that is, the act of taking refuge in the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wondrous Dharma. For this reason, the Lotus Sutra is the great ship that departs this shore of delusion and crosses the great ocean of birth and death to reach the other shore of awakening. Followers of the Lotus Sutra are just like people who obtain a boat to cross the waters. The Lotus Sutra is the only ship that is certain to convey its practitioners across the great ocean of birth and death.

Chapter 10 of the Lotus Sutra, “Teachers of the Dharma,” states, “I bestow the assurance of Supreme Perfect Awakening upon those people who hear even a single verse or a single phrase of the Wondrous Dharma Flower Sutra and thereby experience even a moment of rejoicing.” 

It also states, “Such people have already paid homage to ten thousand million buddhas and have completed a great vow in the presence of those buddhas. Out of compassion for living beings, they will be born in this human realm.”

Courageous perseverance and great joy well up like a spring in the mind of whoever hears the sutra’s passages and Dharma guidance and attains faith in and understanding of its meaning.

All the members of pure heart attending this [spring/autumn] equinox ceremony vow to practice the bodhisattva way through accumulating merits and cultivating virtues. To our ancestors, we transfer all the merits of the good deeds we have performed since the beginningless past and will perform for all eternity.

We respectfully pray that through the merits of embracing the Three Treasures of Buddhism, all buddhas and all honored ones extend their hands of compassion and protection to all the ancestors of the families for whom we conduct this ceremony today, and all those who have passed beyond, known and unknown to us, wherever they be. 

May all of them cross the great ocean of birth and death, so that they may reach the other shore

of great parinirvana and quickly accomplish the great fruit of Supreme Perfect Awakening in the radiant land of tranquil light.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo (Strike the gong once.)

Notes

1. As for the quotes from the Threefold Lotus Sutra in the third and fourth paragraphs, you can replace them with appropriate passages from the sutra.

2. After the fourth paragraph, you can insert a quote from the Dharma guidance of Founder Niwano or President Niwano as appropriate. See the examples 1 to 5 below.

Example 1

Placed inside the statue of the Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni in the Great Sacred Hall is a dedicatory inscription appended to the ten scrolls of the Threefold Lotus Sutra. The inscription, which the Founder wrote, says: “The Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni, Great Benevolent Teacher, World-Honored One, is our great focus of devotion, which merits veneration, respect, praise, and devotion from us followers of Buddhism and even the esteem of all human beings of every faith. Practice that upholds the actions of the three vehicles through body, speech, and mind is itself the great and direct way to the wondrous abode of nirvana.”

Example 2

In his Dharma guidance, the Founder told us, “Shakyamuni awakened to the Dharma of the three vehicles: the Four Noble Truths, the Twelve Causes and Conditions, and the Six Perfections. Practicing these teachings is the one and only way of practice that enables us to eliminate the sufferings of life and attain nirvana—the state of absolute peace.”

Example 3

In his Dharma guidance, the Founder told us, “Future generations will need a spirituality that seeks the true wisdom and the other shore of awakening. The other shore may appear far away, but we can actually find it in the place closest to us—our own hearts and minds.”

Example 4

In his Dharma guidance, the President told us, “We are given the gift of life and sustained by the eternal life of the Original Buddha. We are living the life of the Original Buddha in every moment.”

Example 5

In his Dharma guidance, the President told us, “Immediately upon receiving the Buddha’s wisdom, one enters eternal life since we human beings are gifted with the ability to recognize the truth. We who have encountered the teachings of the Buddha must be fully conscious that we possess this gift. The moment we experience an awakening of gratitude for being born human and recognize the truth, we receive the Buddha’s eternal life.