Stories of Chinese Cuisine - All You Need To Know About The Chinese Mid Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival or the Mooncake Festival, is a very grand festival tradition in China. The date of the Mid-Autumn Festival changes every year, and traditionally falls on the 15th day of the 8th Chinese lunar month. This typically means sometime in the month of September or early October on the Gregorian calendar.

How much do you really know about the significance of this festival? Here are some key facts:

1. The Mid-Autumn Festival is the second most important festival in China, only after the Chinese New Year

As Chinese New Year is typically celebrated earlier on in the first half of the year, the Mid-Autumn festival is an opportunity for Chinese people, particularly those who have moved further away from their hometowns, to return and reunite with their families again in the latter half of the year. 

2. Significance of the Moon: Family Reunion

On festival day, all family members would gather for a big reunion dinner, to appreciate the significance of the moon by lighting paper lanterns as well as eating the traditional mooncakes. The full moon is the symbol of family reunions in Chinese culture, and it is said that “the moon on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival is the brightest and the most beautiful”.

3. 3,000 Years of History

The Mid-Autumn Festival originated as the moon worshipping ceremony more than 3,000 years ago during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). The earliest record of the Chinese written character “mid-autumn” is in a book of the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD). In successive dynasties, customs such as singing and dancing in the moonlight as well as worshipping of the moon on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month were introduced.

The Mid-Autumn Festival became the second most important festival in China after the Chinese New Year with close to equal significance and popularity.

4. Most Well-Known Legend of The Mid-Autumn Festival: Goddess Chang E Flew To The Moon

Here’s one of the most well-known legends of the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival, most widely told during the festival days. According to this legend, a hero named Hou Yi acquired a magic potion that supposedly would immediately turn them into a god or goddess that was able to fly to Heaven. He gave this potion to his wife Chang E for safe keeping.
A few days later, while Hou Yi was away from home, an evil man named Peng Meng broke into their home and tried to force Chang E to surrender the immortality potion by threatening her with a sword. Chang E swallowed the potion in order to prevent it from falling into his hands. She immediately floated off the ground and flew up into the sky.
As she was concerned for her husband, she flew to the moon, the heavenly body closest to Earth. Hou Yi was so filled with sorrow that he would offer up Chang E’s favourite food on the night of the full moon in her memory. This custom eventually spread into a well-known folklore.

5. Other than China, many other Asian countries also celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival

Many other Asian countries such as Japan, Thailand, South Korea, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka also celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival in their own unique ways and with their own customs and traditions.
Some examples include in Japan, people worship the moon with offerings of fruits and rice, then sit around to appreciate the moon and share the food. In some places, temple fairs are held, and people gather in front of the shrines to sing songs and dance.
In North Korea, people appreciate the moon, eat bean cakes and glutinous rice with added pine nuts, chestnuts, jujubes and honey. In the countryside, people also hold sporting activities such as wrestling, swinging, archery and weaving competitions.
In Sri Lanka, people celebrate the full moon every month, but the grandest celebration is the Mid-Autumn Festival. The customs are like those of China, such as moon appreciation, moon worship, and family reunions, with additional local traditions.
 

6. What Food Is Eaten During Mid-Autumn Festival

Celebrating the harvest is one of the most traditional meanings of Mid-Autumn Festival, thus harvest foods are favoured during the festive period. The top Mid-Autumn Festival foods are:
- Mooncakes
- Starfruit
- Hairy crabs
- Pomelos
- Pears
- Liquor

Mooncakes are the must-eat Mid-Autumn food in China. They are a traditional Chinese pastry with lotus seed paste and salty egg yolk fillings. Chinese people see in the roundness of mooncakes a symbol of reunion and happiness.
Other foods eaten during the festival are harvest foods, such as crabs, pumpkins, pomelos, and starfruit People enjoy them at their freshest, most nutritious time, and enjoy their auspicious meanings that are particularly associated with round foods.

7. Celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival in Australia

In Australia we are lucky to have such diverse cultures amongst our communities which means we are also lucky to have access to many different foods and ingredients. We can celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival with an Aussie touch. Head to your local fish market and grab some live mud crabs to make a Stir-fried Crab in Chilli Hoisin Sauce. Or you can celebrate with duck and oranges (round foods are a symbol or reunion and happiness) by making this Air Fried Crispy Duck and Orange Salad with Oyster Sauce Dressing. 
Enjoy with your family and friends, celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival!