(Summary at the bottom)
From mooncakes and lighting lanterns to family reunions and more! The Mid-Autumn Festival is a celebration filled with many traditions, it is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the Lunar calendar. Mid-Autumn Festival is known as Zhong Qiu Jie （中秋节） in Chinese and is also known by other names such as Mooncake festival or the Moon Festival. 

 

 

Here you can read about a few ways the festival is celebrated in different countries.

Here you can read about the festival’s old tales.

What is Mid-Autumn festival

Mid-Autumn Festival has been celebrated since the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BCE). Ancient Chinese emperors celebrated the harvest, held ceremonies to pray for a prosperous year and the return of good harvest. In Yuetan Park in Beijing, originally the Temple of Moon, the emperor would go there to offer a sacrifice to the moon. This old tradition and celebration became much more common in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), people enjoyed and worshipped the full moon. Then, by the time of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasties (1644-1911), Mid-Autumn Festival had become one of the main festivals in China. It is also celebrated in several countries in East and Southeast Asia, such as in Taiwan, Vietnam, Hong Kong and more!

As the mid-autumn approaches, farmers have just finished gathering their crops and bringing in fruits. They are filled with joy when the harvest is overflowing and at the same time feeling relaxed after a year of hard work. Today, the full moon during the festival is a symbol of reunions. People are visiting families and friends, setting up tables and spending time sharing meals. Together they share offerings to the moon and chat the night way, naturally they are also reminded of the old tales about the moon! 

A sweet tradition: Mooncakes

Mooncakes, in Chinese Yue Bing（月饼）, is an essential part of every year’s celebration. Whether you are buying or making them yourself. People prepare boxes for their families, friends, co-workers and more to express their love and best wishes. Often cut into wedges and then shared with family and friends, with a cup of tea.

In the book ‘Meng Liang Lu’, the mooncake is first described as a popular street snack during the Song Dynasty and not yet connected to the festival. By the time of the Ming Dynasty, mooncakes shared a deeper meaning, people gifted each other mooncakes to express their wish for reunion. During the Qing Dynasty they became a widespread treat. Early versions resembled today’s Suzhou style mooncakes, flaky pastries with sweet or savory fillings.

 

 

In the 1920s the golden round and square mooncakes came, these are also the ones you mostly see around today, with a thin outer crust and a sweet lotus seed paste and salted egg yolk filling. The salted egg yolks resemble the full moon and the round shapes of the mooncakes represent reunion and completeness. These are commonly known as Cantonese style mooncakes.

There are many varieties of mooncakes, each different depending on which region they are from. They vary in flavour, texture and how they look, here are some examples:

Shanghai mooncakes have a crust made of shortcrust pastry, which makes it crisp and crumbly and tastes a bit buttery. Like the Cantonese style, this one is often filled with lotus paste and salted egg yolks. 

For the savoury lovers the Suzhou mooncakes would be a good pick! These have a crispy and flaky crust with pork filling.

While traditional mooncakes are baked, there are also no bake mooncakes and the Snow skin mooncake is one of them. The crust is made from cooked glutinous rice, this gives it a smooth texture. They have a similar pattern like the cantonese style and the same filling, they also have experimental flavours such as milk tea.

There are many varieties and it’s hard to choose sometimes, but with so many available there’s something for everyone! 

Activities

Eating together and traditional foods

The round moon symbolizes the whole family gathered at one table, every home prepares food and comes together to celebrate the festival. Everything that is cooked and the way it is served all points back to being together! 

 

Some traditional foods served during the festival:

Duck in fall has many health benefits according to traditional Chinese medicine. It helps your body fight the dryness during the fall and winter. There is also an old folk tale that has been passed down for centuries about people coming together to overthrow a corrupt ruler and his name sounded like ‘’duck’’ in the local dialect. So ‘’to eat a duck’’ is to overthrow him!

Pomelos are harvested in the fall, having this fruit is a way to represent blessings for children and grandchildren. Pomelo, in Chinese you zi （柚子）, also sounds like another similar word, you zi （佑子） , which means ‘’bless and protect the children.’’. You can display pomelos on a fruit platter to share with family and friends! 

Taro in a southern dialect sounds like ‘’the coming of good fortune’’. So eating taro during Mid-Autumn Festival is believed to drive away bad luck and bring in good luck and wealth. This tradition began during the Qing Dynasty.

Lighting and making lanterns

Making colourful lanterns and lighting them up during the evening, gives the night a beautiful view. Lanterns can have different shapes, they can resemble animals, plants and even flowers! This is an especially happy activity for families with children as they love making colourful lanterns. Kongming lanterns are also made, these lanterns can fly because they have burning candles that heat the air inside. You can write good wishes and let them fly up in the sky.

Giving gifts

It is very popular to give gifts to relatives and friends during Mid-Autumn Festival, not just for family and friends but companies also like to give a gift to their staff members. Gift giving plays an important role in building and maintaining relationships with others, especially during special occasions. It is an act to express our love and respect. A classic gift are mooncakes, fruit baskets are also very common, popular fruits that are included are pears, pomegranates and grapes, these fruits are all in season and have good meanings. 

Moon gazing

On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, it is believed that the moon is the roundest and brightest. A full moon is a symbol of reunion and has been a tradition to admire the full moon during the festival since ancient times. After dinner, families would set up a table outside or in the courtyard to worship the moon and pray for blessings for the upcoming year.

In ancient China the Sun and Moon were very important for timekeeping, they have also always been very significant in folklore, for example in the Legend of Chang’e. Chinese people use a lunisolar calendar (based on the monthly moon cycles and the solar year) for the traditional holidays and events. 

Moon gazing is also often paired with looking at the stars, did you know that Chinese astronomers discovered about 283 smaller constellations? Also known as ‘asterisms’. In traditional Chinese astronomy the sky was seen as a reflection of earth, this is why the asterisms were based on daily life in the Chinese Empire. Their names were inspired by things such as the weather conditions, animals, objects and more!

Summary

• Mid-Autumn Festival has been celebrated since the Shang Dynasty, over 3000 years ago
• Ancient Chinese emperors held ceremonies to pray for a prosperous year and the return of good harvest
• Mid-Autumn festival is celebrated in several countries in East-Asia
• Mooncake is a Chinese pastry with a thin outer crust and a sweet lotus seed paste and salted egg yolk filling, with lots of other varieties!
• There are many traditional and new celebrations with fun activities

 

We hope you enjoyed learning more about the festival, we wish you all a lovely weekend with your family and friends. Don’t forget to grab a mooncake and watch the bright full moon tonight, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!


Love,

The Inclusivity Group