Mid-autumn Festival - A Time for Family Reunion

Mid-autumn Festival

中秋节(zhōnɡ qiū jié), which is also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. It is a time for family members and loved ones to celebrate reunion and appreciate the full moon - an auspicious symbol of abundance, harmony and luck.

The Moon Turns Full on Mid-autumn Festival

Mid-autumn Festival is the second largest festival behind Chinese Spring Festival. According to Chinese calendar, August is in the second (middle) month in autumn, and the date of 15th is also in the middle of August. This is why the name “Middle Autumn” is called. Besides the name “Mid-Autumn”, there are many other names: Because most activities on this day are about moons, this day is also called “Moon Festival”. People also call it “Reunion Day” because families get together on this day to celebrate reunion.

Origin and Legend Stories

中秋节 probably began as a harvest festival, but the festival was later given a mythological flavor with the legend of 嫦娥奔月(chánɡ é bēn yuè), meaning “A beautiful lady called chánɡ é flies towards the moon”.

According to Chinese mythology, the earth once had 10 suns circling over it. One day, all 10 suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. The earth was saved when a strong archer, Hòu Yì , succeeded in shooting down 9 of the suns. After that Hòu Yì was granted the Never-Grow-Old elixir, which he let his wife chánɡ é to save it. Hòu Yì’s apprentice Peng Meng knew this and forced chánɡ é to hand over the elixir. Without choices, chánɡ é drank it. Then she became god and started flying to the moon. Because chánɡ é missed his husband, she stayed on the moon which is the closest planet to the earth.

After they were separated, Hòu Yì missed his wife chánɡ é day and night and wished to see his wife one day. A god knew this and gave him an instruction: On August 15th every year, make a round cake with flour; put it on the north-west of the house and shout the name of chánɡ é three times. Then Chang would hear this and came back home to join the reunion with him. Hòu Yì followed Him and reunited with his wife. Later the cakes made of flour were developed into different kinds of 月饼(yuè bǐnɡ) “Moon Cakes”, which we see today.

Traditional Activities

As a saying goes, "The moon in your hometown is almost always the brightest and roundest". Many people who live far away from homes want to go back to have a family reunion 团圆 (tuán yuán). In the evening of Mid-Autumn Festival, each Chinese family would set up a table in the courtyard and put lots of delicious food on the table, such as moon cakes, gourds, watermelons, apples, etc. A whole family would gather together at the table to appreciate the full moon, enjoy the hard-won reunion and pray for happiness, health and success.

There are many other activities, like riddle guessing, floating lanterns, the dragon dance, worshipping the moon etc. are all very common over the country.

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