Mid-Autumn Festival in China

After an absolutely stunning National Day celebration on 1 October, China continued with its festivities of the Mid-autumn Festival which fell on 3 of October this year. The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, or in Chinese, Zhongqiu Jie is a popular harvest festival celebrated by the Chinese dating back over 3,000 years to moon worship in China’s Shang Dynasty. The festival is the second most important festival to the Spring Festival to Chinese people. Every year, when the festival comes people go home from every corner of the world to meet their family and have dinner with them. It was first called Zhongqiu Jie (literally "Mid-Autumn Festival") in the Zhou Dynasty. It is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival or Moon cake Festival.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, which is usually around late September or early October in the Gregorian calendar. It is a date when the moon is supposedly at its fullest and roundest. The traditional food of this festival is the moon cake, of which there are many different varieties.

Traditionally on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes together. Accompanying the celebration, there are additional cultural or regional customs, such as:

• Eating moon cake outside under the moon
• Carrying brightly lit lanterns, lighting lanterns on towers, floating sky lanterns
• Burning incense in reverence to deities
• Planting Mid-Autumn trees
• Fire Dragon Dances
Click here to view a short video presentation and to read more on the Mid-Autumn Festival. http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/festivals/mid-autumn-festival.htm