Mondelez Kinh Do and Publicis Vietnam Call For ‘Day of Togetherness’ to Celebrate Tet Trung Thu

Mondelez Kinh Do is calling on Vietnamese employers to give people one full day off to celebrate Tet Trung Thu, a tradition that is slowly being lost – many families don’t celebrate the festival like they used to.  

Taking place annually, Tet Trung Thu (mid-Autumn festival) is the second biggest festival in Vietnam: a time of the year when the moon is at its brightest, crops are fully harvested, and families come together to give thanks. Traditionally, the festival gave parents the chance to make up for lost time with their children after harvest season, to light lanterns and enjoy a Kinh Do mooncake together.  

Tet Trung Thu has been celebrated in Vietnam for over 400 years, held on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Lunar year. But as Vietnam has progressed, many people have begun to prioritise work and business over celebrating this centuries-old tradition, particularly as Tet Trung Thu is not a national holiday.  

Through a national survey, Mondelez Kinh Do discovered that 92% of Vietnamese wish they could have one day off to celebrate this festival with loved ones. To kickstart a movement in its 25th year of making Kinh Do mooncakes, the company gave 3,000 employees the day off to celebrate Tet Trung Thu last Friday 29th September.  

As part of a campaign, created by Publicis Groupe Vietnam, Mondelez Kinh Do also delivered special boxes of 25th-anniversary mooncakes with personal letters to leaders of leading companies in Vietnam, inviting them to join Mondelez in giving their employees ‘One Day of Togetherness’. Already, 13 companies have pledged to follow suit.  

Meanwhile, on the Kinh Do platform, almost 300,000 Vietnamese have voted to petition Tet Trung Thu to be a national holiday. By law, Vietnamese are allowed 12 days of paid leave annually, compared to 30 in France, 28 in the UK, and 20 in Australia. Vietnam has 11 days of public holidays annually, the fewest in Southeast Asia, while Cambodians and Malaysians enjoy the most.  

“We discovered that deep inside the hearts of every Vietnamese person is the wish to have a whole day to celebrate the mid-Autumn Festival with loved ones. To keep this festival alive, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Kinh Do Mooncakes, we gave all our employees in Vietnam the day off – and we hope other organisations in Vietnam will follow suit. Happy Trung Thu!” said Anil Viswanathan, managing director at Mondelez Kinh Do Vietnam. 

Publicis Groupe is supporting this initiative by declaring Tet Trung Thu a holiday, too: on 29th September, all employees enjoyed a day off to celebrate mid-Autumn festivities. 

“This initiative is truly meaningful to the preservation of Vietnamese culture and to the wellbeing of our people. Last Friday, we were out-of-office and away from keyboard, lighting lanterns and enjoying Kinh Do mooncakes with the people we love. Together with Mondelez Kinh Do, we are proud to be part of a movement to keep Vietnam’s mid-Autumn festival alive,” said Kate Bayona-Garcia, CEO at Publicis Groupe Vietnam.