Vu Lan Festival Approaches

Hong Anh had a few free hours alone yesterday afternoon and biked out beyond our hotel into the outer reaches of the old Hue City. Here alongside one of the lotus ponds behind the palace area, she found a shop that makes incense used in the temples. The Vu Lan Festival will occur here a week from today on August 7-8 which are the middle two days (full moon) in the lunar calendar. This is a festival to recognize the mother of Buddha and really all mothers everywhere for having given birth to their descendants. The temples will be packed and Hue's vegetarian restaurants will be overflowing, and smells of incense will fill the temples and the air. With any luck we'll have clear skies then and can have some nice views of the moon out on the river.