Mid-Autumn Festival
Next: September 15, 2027
The brightest moon of the year, and everyone home to see it.
The story
Where it comes from
The Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节) falls on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, the full moon closest to the autumn equinox, when the moon is said to be at its roundest and brightest. Moon worship at harvest is recorded from the Zhou dynasty; the festival took its present shape under the Tang and Song. Its story is of Chang'e (嫦娥), who drank an elixir of immortality and rose to the moon, where she lives with the Jade Rabbit; her husband Hou Yi set out her favourite foods under the moon each year, and so did everyone else. The same full moon is Chuseok in Korea, Tsukimi in Japan and Tết Trung Thu in Vietnam.
How it's celebrated
Families gather to eat together and then go outside to look at the moon. Mooncakes (月饼), dense round pastries with lotus-seed or red-bean paste and a salted egg yolk for the moon, are exchanged in boxes between families, friends and business partners in the weeks before; snow-skin, durian and ice-cream versions are now common in Malaysia and Singapore. Children carry paper lanterns; pomelos are eaten; in Hong Kong the Tai Hang fire-dragon dance winds through the streets for three nights. The festival is a public holiday in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Vietnam.
Did you know
- The festival was UNESCO-listed as Intangible Cultural Heritage of China in 2006.
- China's lunar exploration programme is named Chang'e after the moon goddess, and its rover Yutu after the Jade Rabbit.
- A single traditional mooncake can contain around 800 to 1,000 calories, which is why they are cut into small wedges and shared.
- Legend says the Ming rebellion against the Mongol Yuan dynasty was coordinated by messages hidden inside mooncakes.
The greeting
中秋节快乐 · 人月两团圆
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