Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival, or Mid-autumn Day, is the second grandest festival in China after the Chinese New Year. It is named so for that it is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, which is always in the middle of the autumn season in China. 

Chinese Moon Festival

The day is also known as the Moon Festival, as at that time of the year the moon is believed to be at its fullest and brightest and Chinese always worship the moon and appreciate the full moon on that day.

Time for Family Reunion

In Chinese culture, full moon symbolizes reunion, so that they reunite with their families for celebrations. They worship the moon together, appreciate the moon together, enjoy reunion dinner and even share one mooncake to celebrate the reunion. 

October 1st, 2020

It falls on 1st October this year. Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of 8th month in Chinese lunar calendar. In Gregorian calendar, it usually falls in September or early October. 

People enjoy one day off on the festival day which is usually connected with the weekend to be a 3-day holiday. If it falls within October 1th - 7th, the holiday will be 8 days long, celebrated together with Chinese National Day. 

How do Chinese celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival? – Top Activities & Traditions 

Eat Moon Cakes

This is the most popular Mid-Autumn Festival activity. Mooncakes are cookies with various fillings like nuts, read bean paste, lotus root paste, egg yolk, meat, and fruit, etc. They are usually round to symbolize the full moon and family reunion. 

Worship the Moon 

This tradition has been 3,000 years old. On the night, people set a table with mooncakes and other sacrifices towards the moon, make wishes, offer incense and kowtow to the moon. Afterwards, the families will share the sacrifices. 

Enjoy family reunion dinner

During the festival, all families try their best to go home and enjoy a big feast. In addition to mooncakes, other popular dishes for the reunion dinner include osmanthus cake, osmanthus wine, crab, duck, taro, and pumpkin. 

Drink Osmanthus Wine

Around the festival, the Osmanthus is always in full blossom, making it a good time to make and drink osmanthus wine. It is light yellow with strong osmanthus fragrance and grape similar flavor, tasting sweet, sour and soft.

Make and Hang Festival Lanterns

This is an activity popular in Guangdong and Hong Kong areas, favored especially by kids. In other places of China, people also set Kongming lanterns to make best wishes. 

Other traditions to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival include fire dragon dance popular in Hong Kong, playing Lord Rabbit in Beijing, and watching Qiantang River Tide in Hangzhou, etc. 

How to Greet Each Other for Mid-Autumn Festival

中秋节快乐

zhōng qiū jié kuài lè

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

 Send Mid-autumn Festival Greeting Cards 

Mid-Autumn Festival History and Origin since 3,000 Years Ago

Why do we celebrate the Moon Festival? The festival was originated from the moon worship to celebrate the harvest in autumn season about 3,000 years ago. About 1,800 to 2,200 years ago, the word “Mid-autumn” was started to be used to record the festival. Since 1,100 to 1,400 years ago, mooncake has been widely eaten on the festival date. In the Northern Song Dynasty about 900 to 1,000 years ago, the 15th day of 8th lunar month was finally set as the official festival date. Later, the festival became more and more popular and was celebrated national wide.     

Story & Legend

As the Mid-Autumn Festival was originally derived from the worship of the moon god, many interesting stories and legends are told and spread among folklore explaining the purpose of the worship. The most famous one is the ‘Chang E Flying to the Moon'. The legend goes like this: 

Chang E’s husband, Hou Yi was rewarded the elixir of immortality for shooting down the extra nine suns which tortured people a lot. But he would not like become immortal alone and left his wife to live in the heaven, so he gave the elixir to Chang E to keep it well. Unfortunately, one of Hou Yi’s followers got to know it. One a 15th day of the 8th lunar month when Hou Yi went out hunting, that follower sneaked into Hou Yi and Chang E’s home and forced Chang E to handed over the elixir. Unhelpfully, Chang E ate the elixir, became an immortal and uncontrollably left the earth for the heaven. As she didn’t want to leave her husband, she flew to the moon, the closest place to the earth in the heaven. Hou Yi, in hope of reunion, presented the mooncakes on every 15th day of the 8th lunar month since then.