Mid-Autumn Festival isn’t only about mooncakes and lanterns
There will be mooncakes aplenty today as Chinese celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节) with a public holiday and the versatile snack. The festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, when a full moon fills the sky and harvest time is in full flow in the villages.
The first known mention of the 中秋 appears in the Rites of Zhou (《周礼》), a work on the politics and culture of the Western Zhou dynasty (1046 – 771 BCE), while records in the Book of Tang (《唐书》) suggest celebrations date from the Tang dynasty (618 – 907). Nowadays, eating mooncakes and appreciating the largest moon of the year are the most common ways people enjoy the festival, but there are many other lesser-known celebration rituals associated with the festival, some of which date back hundreds of years. Here are some alternative ways people celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival all around China:
Wang Lin is a contributing writer at The World of Chinese who aspires to tell fresh stories about life, arts and culture in China—no prejudice, no clichés. Her writing has appeared on Nikkei Asia, the South China Morning Post, RADII, and elsewhere. She was born in Ningbo, a bustling port known for its dumplings and seafood.
