Gathering with families, eating moon cakes, and appreciating the fullest moon with lanterns, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a grand time for family reunions. The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th month in the Chinese lunar calendar. Mid-Autumn Festival dates change every year on the Gregorian calendar, usually distributes between early September and early October.
Combined with a weekend, Chinese people will have a 3-day holiday from September 19 to Customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival in China focus on thanksgiving, praying, and family reunions. The most common traditions are gathering with family, sharing moon cakes, and appreciating the moon.
With the development of the economy, nowadays Chinese people usually give WeChat red envelopes as gifts and go for a short trip on the Mid-Autumn Festival. Click the link to watch an interesting video and know more details about the Mid-Autumn Festival traditions in China.
Besides those traditions in China, other Asian countries have their own unique customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is also known as a Children Festival. During the festival, parents will accompany their children and give them gifts like masks or lanterns. Most gifts are made by hand rather than buying at shops. Children would light lanterns and join in lion dance at the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Read Mid-Autumn Festival around the World to find more traditions in other countries. People usually send Mid-Autumn Festival cards or messages to family and friends on this grand occasion. It is named so for that it is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, which is always in the middle of the autumn season in China.
Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of 8th month in Chinese lunar calendar. In Gregorian calendar, it usually falls in September or early October.
People in mainland China enjoy one day off on the festival day which is usually connected with the weekend to be a 3-day holiday. If it falls within October 1th - 7th, the holiday will be 8 days long, celebrated together with Chinese National Day. In Hong Kong and Macau, people also enjoy one day off. However, it is not scheduled on the festival day, but the following day and it is usually not connected with the weekend. In Taiwan, the one day holiday falls on the festival day.
This is the most popular Mid-Autumn Festival activity. Mooncakes are cookies with various fillings like nuts, read bean paste, lotus root paste, egg yolk, meat, and fruit, etc. They are usually round to symbolize the full moon and family reunion. Read more:. In traditional Chinese culture, the moon on the festival night is believed to be the fullest and brightest of the whole year, symbolizing family reunion.
Even a family member is not home, he or she is appreciating the same moon with other families, seeming like they are together. This tradition has been 3, years old.
On the night, people set a table with mooncakes and other sacrifices towards the moon, make wishes, offer incense and kowtow to the moon. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, people set a table under the moon with mooncakes, snacks, fruits, and a pair of candles lit on it.
This is children's favorite activity. Mid-Autumn lanterns have many shapes and can resemble animals, plants, or flowers. The lanterns are hung in trees or on houses , creating beautiful scenes at night. Some Chinese people write good wishes on the lanterns for health, harvests, marriage, love, education, etc. In some countryside areas, local people light lanterns that fly up into the sky or make lanterns that float on rivers and release them like prayers of dreams coming true.
Check out more on Mid-Autumn Festival Celebrations. Besides the above common celebrations, different regions also have some unique traditions.
The special Mid-Autumn Festival customs of China's ethnic minorities are also very interesting. Many interesting activities with unique local features are held. In Singapore , Malaysia , and the Philippines — three countries with many ethnic Chinese citizens — the celebrations are more Chinese , such as lighting lanterns and dragon dances.
The date is also the same as in China , but there is no public holiday. In other countries, such as Japan , South Korea , and Vietnam , which have also been influenced deeply by Chinese culture, new celebrations have been derived from their unique cultures. Mid-Autumn Festival is a pleasant time. Many Chinese people send e-cards or short messages during the festival to express their best wishes to family and friends.
May the round moon bring you a happy family and a successful future. During Mid-Autumn Festival, people love to give gifts to their loved ones, friends, parents, other relatives, and staff. Mooncakes are the top option among all gifts. In recent years, mooncakes have been made in various shapes to make them attractive, like animal shapes, flower shapes, love heart shapes, etc. Other popular gifts are fresh hairy crab particularly around Shanghai , tea , fruit baskets , and organic rice and oil.
Celebrating the harvest is one of the most traditional meanings of Mid-Autumn Festival, thus harvest foods are favored during the festive period. The top Mid-Autumn Festival foods are:. Mooncakes are the must-eat Mid-Autumn food in China. They are a traditional Chinese pastry. 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 grapes. People enjoy them at their freshest, most nutritious time, and enjoy their auspicious meanings that are particularly associated with round foods. In China, the expression that "the moon is extraordinarily full during the Mid-Autumn Festival" has been passed on from generation to generation.
0コメント