Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
What is the Mid-Autumn Festival?
The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of four major traditional holidays in China – second only to Lunar New Year. It is celebrated on the 15th of the eighth month on the lunar calendar, when the moon is said to be especially round.
Outside China, the Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated in many East Asian and Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, and others.
This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival lands on Tuesday, September 21, 2021.
Why is it celebrated?
In general, the Mid-Autumn Festival symbolizes unity and harmony through a day of remembrance of loved ones, hopeful wishes, and time with family. Similar to Thanksgiving, family and friends come together to enjoy a feast and celebrate through several traditions. Some people also celebrate this day to honor a successful period of harvest.
Several legends, including Chang'e and Hou Yi, and the Jade Rabbit, are associated with the Festival.
Legend of the Jade Rabbit
It is said that the Jade Rabbit now lives with Chang'e, the goddess of the moon.
One day, the Jade Emperor sent three divine beings to Earth in search of someone to create elixirs of immortality. The three immortals believed that humans were corrupt and untrustworthy, so they searched for an animal instead. The immortals, disguised as starving beggars, went into the forest to find the worthy animal willing to help them.
Three sympathetic animals, a monkey, fox, and rabbit, came forward. Both the monkey and fox returned with food, but the rabbit couldn’t. Feeling guilty, the rabbit sacrificed itself as food. The selfless act moved the three immortals, so the rabbit was brought to the moon, where it mastered medicine making.
The Emperor was delighted by the rabbit’s hard work and granted it a layer of dazzling, snow-white fur – creating its name, the Jade Rabbit.
How is it celebrated?
Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations vary from region to region. Some notable traditions include:
Worshipping and admiring the moon
Lighting up sky lanterns
Solving riddles
Eating mooncakes, which are round like the moon and symbolize reunion
Eating fresh, seasonal, and dried fruits
Admiring osmanthus & drinking osmanthus wine
Celebrate in Chinatown
Celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival traditions in Chinatown today:
Buy mooncakes at local businesses – check out our mooncake guide post
Enjoy Pomelo fruit from fruit stands on Mulberry Street and Canal Street
Visit street vendors to enjoy other regional traditional foods like taro
Shop for festive lanterns traditionally used for the holiday
