The Mid-Autumn Festival: A Enchanting Celebration of the Full Harvest Moon

The full moon closest to the autumnal equinox holds significance for various cultures worldwide. This lunar event is commonly known as the Harvest Moon, traditionally illuminating the night for farmers laboring in their fields. In several Asian nations, this particularly bright full moon is honored during the Mid-Autumn Festival, featuring customs such as family gatherings, enjoying ceremonial foods, and showcasing vibrant lanterns.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated extensively across China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, typically occurring in mid-September or early October.

Mid-Autumn Festival Traditions

The festival, which originated during China's Zhou Dynasty over 3,000 years ago (though it gained widespread recognition about 1,500 years later during the Tang Dynasty), is a tribute to the moon. Just as in ancient times, people today honor the occasion by burning incense, creating ceremonial altars with offerings, lighting lanterns, and spending quality time with family, often gathering on rooftops beneath the moonlight.

While customs vary by country, they initially emerged as a way to express gratitude to the moon for a bountiful harvest. Children typically create decorative lanterns adorned with their wishes, proudly displaying them in trees or homes, floating them down rivers, or releasing them high into the sky—each lantern containing a small candle, allowing the Kongming lanterns to rise like miniature hot-air balloons.

Often, people of Chinese heritage come together to savor mooncakes after sunset. These round, filled delicacies are beautifully adorned, often featuring patterns that illustrate the legends associated with the festival. Mooncakes are exchanged as gifts and served during family gatherings. Believed to have become a Mid-Autumn Festival custom during the Ming Dynasty, these treats symbolize the full moon, which represents joyful reunions with loved ones. Their fillings can range from traditional lotus seed paste, egg yolk, or bean paste to more contemporary flavors like chocolate, truffles, foie gras, or ice cream.

Depending on the region, seasonal harvest foods such as pumpkins and crabs are also enjoyed during this time, alongside tea, baskets of fruit, and osmanthus wine. In some areas, a public holiday is even observed.

• In South Korea, the celebration spans three days, with many people traveling to reconnect with family—rather than mooncakes, they enjoy a type of stuffed rice cake known as songpyeon.
• In Taiwan, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a national holiday filled with festivities like mooncake and pomelo eating, the latter being a large citrus fruit related to grapefruit.
• In Japan, the moon is revered, and families adorn their homes with lovely flowers.
• In Vietnam, the Mid-Autumn Festival is called the “Children’s Festival,” where youngsters carry lanterns while watching lion dances and enjoying mooncakes.
• In Singapore’s Chinatown and the Gardens by the Bay, you'll find vibrant lantern displays along with both traditional and modern mooncake varieties.

The Myths Surrounding the Mid-Autumn Festival

One ancient Chinese tale associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival tells of a hero named Hou Yi, who shot down nine of the ten suns that were scorching the earth. For his bravery, the Goddess of the Heavens rewarded him with a special elixir that would allow him to ascend to the heavens and attain godhood.

Tragically, in a bid to protect the elixir from a nefarious man, Hou Yi’s stunning wife, Chang’e, consumed the potion herself and soared to the moon, accompanied by the Jade Rabbit, another mythical figure sent to be with her. Each year thereafter, on the night of the full moon, the sorrowful Hou Yi set out his wife's favorite dishes on the table, hoping she would return.