China Celebrates Mid-Autumn Festival

Moon Cakes

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a day for family reunions much like the American Thanksgiving Day. Besides that, it is also a harvest festival in China. The Mid-Autumn Day is celebrated every year on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month according to Chinese calendar. This year Mid-Autumn Day falls on September 12, which is a statutory holiday. Together with the Saturday (September 10) and the Sunday (September 11), it is counted as a three-day public holiday.

The festival has a long history. In ancient China, emperors followed the rite of offering sacrifices to the sun in spring and to the moon in autumn. Historical books of the Zhou Dynasty had the word "Mid-Autumn". Later aristocrats and literary figures helped expand the ceremony to common people. They enjoyed the full, bright moon on that day, worshipped it and expressed their thoughts and feelings under it. By the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the Mid-Autumn Festival had been fixed, which became even grander in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). In the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, it grew to be a major festival of China.

The fullest and brightest moon for a year always appears on Mid-Autumn Day’s night, and the full moon symbolizes reunion in Chinese traditional culture. People in different places follow various customs, but all show their love and longing for a better life. Today people will enjoy the full moon and eat moon cakes on that day. On that night almost every family in China has a family feast, and then goes to a place with a good view to appreciate the moon, eating moon cakes and fresh fruits and chatting. Some  of the famous places for appreciating the full moon are: Lugou Bridge (Marco Polo Bridge) in Beijing, the Bund in Shanghai, West Lake in Hangzhou, Li River in Guilin, the Yellow Mountains in Anhui Province, Emei Mount in Chengdu, Garden of Master of the Nets in Suzhou, Erhai Lake in Dali, the Dongting Lake in Hunan Province, Laoshan Mountain in Qingdao, Victoria Peak in Hong Kong and the Three Gorges in Chongqing.