How to Celebrate the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival

The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Cake Festival, is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon. This typically falls towards the end of September or early October on the Georgian Calendar. While this festival dates back to the Zhou Dynasty, it has gradually become more popular over the years. Today, Chinese families continue to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival throughout China.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Moon cakes
• Mid-Autumn lantern

1. Make or purchase moon cakes. This food is synonymous with the Mid-Autumn festival. Moon cakes come in various shapes and sizes. Traditional moon cakes were filled with lotus seed paste and egg yolk. Today, the filling in the moon cake can vary.
2. Give moon cakes to your family, friends and co-workers. You may also give relatives other gifts such as food and money.
3. Plan a family reunion dinner or barbecue on the evening of the full moon. The full moon is thought to symbolize reunion, so it is a good opportunity to bring families back together.
4. Eat moon cakes, pomeloes and other foods that are harvested in the fall. In some parts of China, they will put the rind of the pomelo on their head.
5. Attend a Mid-Autumn festival in your community or go to an area where you will have a good view of the moon. Many people like to go to lakes, rivers or mountaintops, where they have an unobstructed space through which they can view the moon.
6. Carry a Mid-Autumn lantern with you while you walk and view the moon. These lanterns are made of paper and may have a candle inside. There are also plastic lanterns which children tend to enjoy.
7. Admire the full moon and think of relatives who may be at a distance.

Tips & Warnings

• Be sure to order your moon cakes early, as they are very popular and may sell out.
• Give children battery powered plastic lanterns. They come in fun shapes, such as animals and cartoon characters, which children will enjoy. They are also safer for children than lanterns with candles.
• Have additional foods available such as: apples, grapes, oranges, pomegranates, peaches and pears.