Introduction Of Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, August Festival, August Meeting, Moon Chasing Festival, Moon Playing Festival, Moon Worship Festival, Girls' Festival or Reunion Festival, is popular among many ethnic groups in China and the cultural circle of Chinese characters. The traditional cultural festival of the country is on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar; because it happens to be the half of the three autumns, hence the name, and some places set the Mid-Autumn Festival on the sixteenth of the eighth month.

The Mid-Autumn Festival began in the early years of the Tang Dynasty and prevailed in the Song Dynasty. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it had become one of the traditional Chinese festivals as famous as the Spring Festival. Influenced by Chinese culture, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also a traditional festival for some countries in East and Southeast Asia, especially the local Chinese and overseas Chinese. Since 2008, the Mid-Autumn Festival has been listed as a national statutory holiday. On May 20, 2006, the State Council was included in the first batch of intangible cultural heritage list.

Since ancient times, the Mid-Autumn Festival has had the customs of offering sacrifices to the moon, admiring the moon, worshipping the moon, eating moon cakes, appreciating osmanthus flowers, drinking osmanthus wine, etc. The Mid-Autumn Festival uses the full moon to signify the reunion of people, as a sustenance to miss the hometown, miss the love of relatives, pray for a good harvest and happiness, and become a colorful and precious cultural heritage. The Mid-Autumn Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Spring Festival and the Qingming Festival are known as the four traditional festivals in China.