Mid-Autumn celebration: Time for festival and family reunion

Mid-Autumn festival is on the 15th day of the eighth month on the lunar calendar every year. This year it will be on Saturday. The festival dates back to the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), then it prevailed through the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and was handed down through the centuries until today.

It is one of the most important holidays in Chinese culture; its popularity is on par with that of Chinese New Year. The history of the Mid-Autumn Festival dates back over 3,000 years. The festival is held on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar with a full moon at night, corresponding to mid-September to early October of the Gregorian calendar. On this day, we believe that the Moon is at its brightest and fullest size, coinciding with harvest time in the middle of Autumn.

Lanterns of all size and shapes, are carried and displayed–symbolic beacons that light people's path to prosperity and good fortune. Eating mooncakes is undoubtedly the most important culinary ritual for the Mid-Autumn Festival in China. Mooncakes, a rich pastry typically filled with sweet-bean, egg yolk, meat or lotus-seed paste, are traditionally eaten during this festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival is based on the legend of Chang'e, the Moon goddess in Chinese mythology.