Mooncakes are a special and decadent gift this time of year, and all the stores and restaurants in China go all out with their own mooncakes, wrapped in beautiful boxes and colorful tins for gift-giving. Families give and receive them, and for the ambitious-make them from scratch! The biggest tradition of the festival is mooncakes! The round shape harkens to the moon. Lanterns can even be made out of pomelos, pumpkins and gourds, similar to a Halloween jack-o-lantern, but that’s less common these days. Unlike during Lunar New Year, they can come in a range of colors, rather than just red and gold. We try to avoid scheduling work responsibilities or even vacations during the Mid-Autumn Festival, as the best place to celebrate is at home with family and friends.Ĭolorful lanterns have become a popular sign of the Mid-Autumn Festival, creating a fun and festive atmosphere and lighting the path to good things to come. To not go home would be about as egregious as not making it home for Thanksgiving here in the U.S.! How Do You Celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival? Cambodia – Bon Om Touk (The Water and Moon Festival) takes place in November.Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia: TheLantern Festival is the common name for the Mid-Autumn Festival.Vietnam – Tết Trung Thu (Mid-Autumn Tet AKA The Children’s Festival). Other Asian countries have similar autumn holidays celebrated on the same day as the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival or around the same time. Today, the holiday is all about family togetherness.īecause of the symbolism around rejuvenation, some folks wish for children and grandchildren around the time of the Mid-Autumn Festival as well! How Do Other Asian Countries Celebrate Autumn? The holiday stretches back 3,000 years, when the Chinese worshipped the moon as a symbol of rejuvenation and a good harvest. The Mid-Autumn Festival celebrates the year’s harvest. This year, 2021, the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on September 21, 2021. This is when the moon is at its brightest and biggest according to the Chinese calendar, and it coincides with fall and the harvest season! The eighth lunar month is in the middle of autumn, which is why it’s called 中秋节 (zhōngqiū jié), or the “Mid-Autumn Festival.” It occurs on the 15th day of the 8th month. The Chinese holiday follows the Chinese lunisolar calendar rather than our more common Gregorian calendar. The Mid-Autumn Festival takes place at the same time as the Harvest Moon, or the full moon that occurs closest to the autumnal equinox (beginning of fall) each year. It’s a time to get together with family, eat, worship the moon, and celebrate the fall harvest! In this post, we’ll talk about how to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival with friends and family! When is the Mid-Autumn Festival? The Mid-Autumn Festival, after Lunar New Year, is the second most important Chinese holiday of the year.
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