The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, is the second-most important holiday after Chinese New Year with a history dating back over 3,000 years, when the Emperor of China worshipped the moon for bountiful harvests.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, is the second-most important holiday after Chinese New Year with a history dating back over 3,000 years, when the Emperor of China worshipped the moon for bountiful harvests.

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. In 2021, it will be on September 21. On this day, the Chinese 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. Mooncakes, a rich pastry typically filled with sweet-bean, yolk, meat or lotus-seed paste, are traditionally eaten during this festival. However, no matter how yummy a mooncake or how pretty a lantern is, the essence of this festival is about being with your family and friends. Looking at the full moon and thinking about the family far away who might be looking at the same moon can briefly console the heart.

In the literary history of China, many poets penned praise to the pure moon of mid-autumn night and gave words to their feelings. Moon-Gazing on the Fifteenth written by Wang Jian (766?-831?), a Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty, is one of the best of those poems. 

十五夜望月

中庭地白树栖鸦，

冷露无声湿桂花。

今夜月明人尽望，

不知秋思落谁家？

Moon-Gazing on the Fifteenth

Center court, pale ground and crows nestling in the trees,

Cold dews quietly wetting the osmanthus blooms.

Tonight’s full moon gazed at by everyone,

Wonder whose home is hit by the falling gloom.

(translated by Ren Zhiji & Yu Zheng)

The Moon Festival is not only celebrated in China, but also celebrated by many East and Southeast Asian people, for example, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Singaporean, Malaysian, Indonesian and Cambodian.