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TRAVEL
264
May15
O
n the 14th day of every lunar
month in Hoi An, a wish
borne on a candle-lit lantern
and launched down the Thu
Bon River will cost you US$1 – and
perhaps a bruise or two as you jostle
with the masses for a piece of cut-price
spirituality.
It’s all good-natured chaos during Full
Moon Lantern Festival on the Cau An Hoi
bridge, with dozens of thin, wooden poles
whirling overhead before gently laying
the flickering paper baskets on the water
to bob away with the current, bumping
up against the hopes and dreams of a
thousand pilgrims under a full moon.
World Heritage-listed Hoi An, about
halfway up Vietnam’s east coast, has
been a magnet for traders and fortune-
seekers for 2,000 years, a prosperous
little river town where capitalism and
religion have long gone hand-in-hand.
Bargaining at local markets is
standard, but some things are sacred
as one heavy-set German man wearing
a money-belt and a middle-aged paunch
discovers when he seeks a “sensible
price” for his lantern.
“No, mister; no half-price wish,” is the
stern reply from a teenage girl toting a
basket of candles. “You want it to only
come half true?”
The big candle launch follows a town-
wide blackout as cafés, restaurants and
businesses switch off their lights and
raise coloured paper lanterns outside
their doors. The locals apologise,
somewhat unnecessarily, for the brief
gloom before one of Southeast Asia’s
most magical spectacles.
A full moon in Thailand or Bali can
mean ear-shredding electronic beats
and mobs of messy backpackers
tearing up a beach, but in Hoi An
the gatherings are civilised, and at
temples and halls the devout pray for
their ancestors or take in theatre and
traditional dance.