Are you a scholar, student, researcher, journalist, filmmaker, or patron who has used our resources for your book, scholarly or mainstream publication, documentary, or other produced work?  If so, we want to hear from you!  Please send us your citations!  Compiling this information will help us secure funding, promote our project, and allow us to continue to provide excellent reference services.  Send your citations to vietnamarchive@ttu.edu with “Vietnam Archive Citation” in the subject line.  Thank you for your assistance!

Amy Mondt

Many of our patrons and researchers know our helpful reference archivist, Amy Hooker.  She handles phone and e-mail reference questions, assists researchers onsite, completes duplication orders, and shares our resources with the public through subject guides and online exhibits.   This summer, Amy married David Mondt, a staff member of the TTU School of Art.  She recently completed the name changing process and is now officially Amy Mondt.  Her new email address is amy.k.mondt@ttu.edu.  Please join me in congratulating her!

Mooncake

Saturday, October 3^rd, 2009 marks the Mid Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon or Full Moon Festival. Traditionally celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, when the moon appears larger than it does on any other night of the year, the Mid Autumn Moon Festival (Tet Trung Thu) is the second biggest holiday in Vietnam and is widely celebrated throughout Asia. It is a time for family and to celebrate life, prosperity, and the harvest. During the Mid Autumn festival, parents prepare their children’s favorite dishes and buy them new toys. Children hear the story of Chu Cuoi (the man in the moon) and other fairytales. Hanging and floating lanterns are set out to decorate and people dance the lion and dragon dances. Mooncakes (made from lotus seed, ground beans, and containing a bright salted egg yolk in the center) are given to family and friends. Pomelo fruit and watermelon seeds are a special treat. At night children parade through the streets to the beat of drums wearing Paper Mache masks and carrying lanterns in the shapes of stars, rabbit heads, fish (carpe), butterflies, or lanterns with a lit candle inside that makes shapes spin representing the seasonal spinning of the earth.

Picture provided by wikimedia commons

As part of the ongoing 20^th Anniversary celebration of the Vietnam Center and Archive, a photograph and artifact exhibit entitled “A Day in the Life of an American Soldier in Vietnam” is currently on display until mid December of this year.  Please visit the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Building on the Texas Tech University campus to experience elements of a typical day in the life of a US soldier during the Vietnam War.  Consisting of over 25 black and white photographs and a selected number of artifacts, this exhibit will provide the visitor with stimulating and descriptive highlights of our highly unique collection materials.  The exhibit is self guided and open to the public, free of charge, Monday through Friday from 8:00am until 5:00pm.  All of the staff at the Vietnam Center and Archive hope that you will join us in celebrating 20 years of success by stopping by to view this exhibit!