The 5th Season of Y Tam's Lantern Festival – 2019

14/9/2019

After traveling more than 400 km through the night, we arrived to be with the children of Yang Mao early one sunny morning, with hills and mountains all around us and fluffy clouds still lingering…

Yang Mao is so beautiful! Everyone cried out in wonder each time the bus crossed a mountain; setting foot in such a faraway place for the very first time, everyone was thrilled.

Then an afternoon downpour hit, and everyone worried that we wouldn't be able to hold the lantern procession and campfire with the children that night. But who would have thought it: the weather was on Y Tam's side. At exactly 6 p.m. the rain stopped, night fell, and the moon rose…

A night in Yang Mao,
A night of 800 glowing lanterns…

Under the light of the full moon, Cuội the Moon Boy and the beautiful Moon Lady, Chị Hằng, appeared with us. The children lit their lanterns and paraded them around the village, then gathered around the flickering campfire, danced every dance they knew and played games that were so much fun.

It was a full, perfect moonlit night. The children went home to sleep, while we kept chatting softly late into the night. On a mountain night steeped in the spirit of the Central Highlands, by the campfire with rượu cần (rice wine sipped through bamboo straws) and grilled meat, settled in a stilt house, we slept soundly until morning.

In the morning, a chilly breeze blew across the hills and the weather was beautiful; more than 800 children came to the festival.

The children played folk games to their hearts' content, had breakfast, drank winter melon tea and took home lots of prizes of sweets. Every child was happy; this was the first time they had ever had so much fun. And we were happier than words can say.

When we left Yang Mao around noon, no one wanted to say goodbye. Though we sat on the bus, our hearts stayed behind in Yang Mao, not yet ready to go home. We love Yang Mao for its poetic mountain scenery, but our hearts go out to the children and the villagers who still face such hardship, without even clean water to use…

Y Tam's Lantern Festival 2019 program has come to an end, but Y Tam is still pursuing the clean water project here.

Y Tam sincerely thanks our donors and friends for joining and supporting us in this program.

Thank you to the youth union members of Tar village and the Yang Mao commune youth union for supporting Y Tam so enthusiastically during the 2 days of the program.

Thank you all for sharing and following Y Tam.

Finally, Y Tam wishes you all good health❤️

Please see more photos from the program here

Sincerely.