Tết Trung Thu falls on Friday, Sept. 25 this year: here's where your family can celebrate around Bolsa — most of it free

What's happening, and why this week

Tết Trung Thu — the Mid-Autumn Festival — falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, when the moon is at its fullest. In 2026 that is Friday, September 25. Korean families mark the same day as Chuseok; Chinese families as the Mid-Autumn Festival. In Vietnamese tradition it is, above all, a children's holiday: kids parade with paper lanterns, lion dancers go door to door, and families share mooncakes under the moon.

Because the full moon is on a Friday, the celebrations in Little Saigon spread across two weekends — the one before (Sept. 19–20) and the one of the moon itself (Sept. 25–27) — with a couple of weekday stops in between. Here is the whole week, in order, with what is free and what costs money.

Updated Thursday afternoon, September 24. The Điều Ngự temple festival, the Senior Center morning and the library afternoon have passed; we keep those sections below for reference. From Thursday night, September 24, through Sunday the 27th it is the four nights of the Fall Festival — full-moon Friday, then the Moon Lantern Saturday — with the newest details in each section.

Saturday, Sept. 19 — the temple festival that gives every kid a lantern

Vui Tết Trung Thu 2026 · Chùa Điều Ngự & IBC TV
Saturday, September 19, 2026 · 3:00–8:00 PM
Hội trường Chùa Điều Ngự (temple hall), 14452 Chestnut St., Westminster
Free.

Điều Ngự Temple and the Vietnamese-language broadcaster IBC TV are putting on the first big Trung Thu of the season, and they have made it about the kids: according to the temple's announcement, every child gets a mooncake, a lantern, a toy, a balloon and a shot at raffle prizes — "hoàn toàn miễn phí," completely free. On stage: live music, a magic show, lion dancing and a fashion show. Kids can also enter contests for drawing, lantern decorating, fan decorating and traditional costume (think áo dài and the little đồ bộ your grandmother keeps in a drawer). The temple is inviting Buddhist youth families, schools, community groups and children's clubs, and is still accepting donations of mooncakes, lanterns and toys.

Questions or donations:
Chùa Điều Ngự (714) 892-⁠5400

Midweek — one for the grandparents, one for the little ones

Moon Festival · Westminster Senior Center
Monday, September 21, 2026 · 10:00–11:00 AM
Westminster Senior Center, 8200 Westminster Blvd., Westminster

The city's senior center hosts a morning Moon Festival on the Monday before the full moon, listed on Westminster's official calendar. In past years the hour has centered on sharing mooncakes together — round cakes for a round moon, as the city put it in an earlier listing. If your parents or grandparents are Senior Center regulars, this is their Trung Thu.
Westminster Senior Center (714) 895-⁠2878

Mid-Autumn Celebration · Westminster Library (OC Public Libraries)
Wednesday, September 23, 2026 · 3:00–4:30 PM
Westminster Library, 8180 13th St., Westminster
Free · drop-in, no registration · supplies limited

The county library's Westminster branch runs a family afternoon right after school: make a festive lantern, try Chinese calligraphy, and taste a mini mooncake. The library says it is drop-in, but supplies are limited — go at 3.
Westminster Library (714) 893-⁠5057

The full-moon weekend, Sept. 24–27 — Westminster Fall Festival, night by night

Westminster Fall Festival (5th annual)
Westminster Civic Center, 8200 Westminster Blvd., Westminster
Admission free · carnival rides and food cost extra · free parking

The city expects more than 12,000 visitors over four nights, and this year two of those nights are built around the moon. Each evening has its own theme, so pick the one your family wants. The lineup below is from the city's site as read on September 14. As of the afternoon of September 24 the city's detailed schedule page sits empty, leaving only the headline hours on the main page. Act times may therefore change — trust the schedule board at the festival:

• Thursday, Sept. 24 · 5–9 PM — Cultural Night for Hispanic Heritage Month. Westminster School District student performances 5–6 PM, Lotería (Mexican bingo) 6–7:30 PM, then the Latin band The C Band 7:30–9 PM.
• Friday, Sept. 25 · 5–11 PM — Opening night, on the full moon itself. Welcome ceremony at 8 PM, then the city's first-ever drone show at 8:30 PM — a fleet of small unmanned aircraft flying in formation to paint pictures of light in the sky. The city's press release bills it as an "America 250" show, for the country's 250th anniversary. If you want to see the harvest moon with a light show under it, this is the night. Before and after: the '90s band The Brightsiders (6:30–8 PM) and the country band Franklin Wall (9–10:30 PM).
• Saturday, Sept. 26 · noon–11 PM — Moon Lantern Celebration (new this year), 5–9 PM. The afternoon belongs to the Embrace Aging Expo, 1–4 PM, the Senior Center's annual resource fair for older adults and the families who care for them. From 4 to 5 PM the Vietnamese Artists Friendship Club performs, as the city lists it — a natural bridge from the expo into the lantern hours. Karaoke closes the night, 9–11 PM.
• Sunday, Sept. 27 · noon–9 PM — The Maker's Hive Market, noon–6 PM, a handmade-goods market to close the weekend, with Shaolin Warrior Academy (3–4 PM) and the No Doubt tribute band Just A Girl (7:30–9 PM) on stage.

What the Moon Lantern Celebration will actually include — a lantern parade, free lanterns, performers — the city still had not published as of the afternoon of September 24; its program page has dropped the "Coming Soon" note but sits empty. One new detail, from the city's press release as republished by the New Santa Ana news site on September 15: the night is presented with Little Saigon TV, the broadcaster that carried Phước Lộc Thọ's lantern night live last year. We will update this guide when the program posts.

Ride tickets: the city is pre-selling an unlimited-ride wristband for $40, versus $50 at the gate. A wristband is good for one day only, Saturday the 26th or Sunday the 27th, and only from noon to 6 PM. Buy online, then bring the QR code on your receipt to an automated kiosk at the festival to pick up the band. Wristbands do not apply on Thursday or Friday night.

Fall Festival contacts:
Community Services & Recreation (714) 895-⁠2860
csronline@westminster-ca.gov
City Hall (714) 898-⁠3311
Embrace Aging Expo — Heather Dodd 714.548.3676

Also on full-moon Friday — Garden Grove's tasting night

Foods of Garden Grove LIVE (3rd annual)
Friday, September 25, 2026 · 5:30–9:00 PM (ticket booths open 4:30)
Village Green Park, 12732 Main St., Garden Grove
Admission and concert free · tasting tickets sold separately

Not a Trung Thu event, but it shares the night: Garden Grove's restaurant tasting fair returns to Village Green with a free concert at the Garden Amp (The New Originals open, Your Mom's Band headlines, DJ Jason Bee in between), plus Art in the Dark and a Glow Zone. Tasting packs, per the organizers: $15 for 5 tickets, $30 for 10, $45 for 20, and a $75 VIP pack with 15 tastings, two drink tickets and lounge access; each ticket buys one sample-size serving at a food stall, or $3 off a drink. Re-checked the afternoon of September 24, the list stands at 29 eateries, among them names Little Saigon will recognize — Pho Redbo, Phuc Long, Cho Tam Bien, Hello Cafe & Bakery — alongside Smoke Queen BBQ, Carolina's Italian and Shawarma House. Free lots on Main Street and Acacia Parkway, a bike valet at the Main Street entrance, and OCTA Route 60 two blocks away.

If you are choosing between the two Friday nights: the drone show is in Westminster at 8:30; FoGG runs to 9 in Garden Grove, three miles east. Doing both is a stretch with kids.

A little farther out

Irvine Mid-Autumn Festival (6th annual) · Friday, September 25, 2026 · 5–9:30 PM · Orange County Great Park, Palm Court Arts Complex · free. Cultural performances, displays, hands-on crafts and food, per the City of Irvine; the schedule, read September 24, includes a lion-dance parade at 5:40 and Kishin Daiko drumming at 6:30. A pan-Asian celebration rather than a Vietnamese one, but a good option if you live on the east side.

What's missing this year

Three fixtures of past Trung Thu seasons still had no 2026 date as of the afternoon of September 24 — one day before the full moon:

• The OC Moon Festival at Mile Square Park. The county's free lantern festival on the Freedom Hall lawn in Fountain Valley — hosted with CalOptima and OC Parks in past years — has not been announced for 2026. In August 2025 Supervisor Janet Nguyen's office held a three-day Cultural Heritage Festival on the same lawn. The events site Enjoy OC describes that festival as having "succeeded" the Moon Festival; we found no county statement saying so.
• Phước Lộc Thọ's Moon Lantern Festival. Last year the Asian Garden Mall's lantern night ran Saturday, September 27, 2025, from 2 to 10 PM, free, with Little Saigon TV broadcasting live. Nothing is posted for 2026 on the mall's site yet; re-read on September 24, it still shows only the mall's summer events. Enjoy OC's September 23 update likewise lists the 2026 night as TBA.
• Santa Ana's Mid-Autumn Festival at Centennial Park. The city's third annual festival drew families on October 5, 2024; no 2026 date is on the city's site.

And one you already missed: the Bowers Museum's Mid-Autumn Moon Festival in Santa Ana was Sunday, September 13.

Tips for going as three generations

• Split the Saturday, Sept. 26. Grandparents to the Embrace Aging Expo at 1, everyone meets back at 4 for the Vietnamese artists' set, then the Moon Lantern Celebration at 5. The ride wristband is only good until 6 PM, so put the kids on the rides first.
• Bring your own lantern to the temple anyway. Điều Ngự is giving lanterns away, but supplies at community events run out early; a store-bought đèn ông sao from a Bolsa gift shop saves tears.
• Cash for the carnival. Admission is free at the Fall Festival; rides, games and food are not. FoGG takes card, mobile pay and cash at the booths.
• Dress for two seasons. Late-September afternoons at the Civic Center run hot; the drone show and lantern hours are after sunset, when it cools fast.
• Add it to your phone. Every event above is on our community calendar at bolsabridge.com/su-kien, with "Add to Google Calendar" and "Directions" buttons.

The bigger picture

For years the biggest Trung Thu night in Orange County belonged to the county, at Mile Square Park. This year the moon is being celebrated closer to home — by a temple on Chestnut Street, a library on 13th Street, and a city hall that is trying a lantern night for the first time. Whether Westminster's Moon Lantern Celebration — with Little Saigon TV alongside this year — becomes an annual fixture will depend on who shows up on Saturday, September 26.