#Midautumn festival meaning full#
#Midautumn festival meaning free#

Visit the author’s website for more information about the festival, instructions to make a bunny lantern, a recipe for tea-stained eggs, and inspiration to write moon poetry. It shows how one family prepares for their moonlit picnic to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, introducing many traditions associated with the holiday.ĭownload free cross-curricular activities for this story.

Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival by Grace Lin is a wonderful picture book to share with young children. Other traditions include lighting and flying lanterns in the moonlight, reading poems about the moon, and sending secret wishes to Chang-O, the moon goddess. Check your local bakery, or give this recipe a try. Today, mooncakes can be found in a variety of shapes with a variety of fillings, such as chocolate or fruit. The most popular food eaten during the festival is the mooncake – a round pastry with molded designs on top and traditionally filled with lotus seed or sweet bean paste. Read three legends behind the Mid-Autumn Festival.įamilies gather for the reunion dinner or picnic that consists of many round foods (symbolizing the moon), including eggs and pomelos.

#Midautumn festival meaning full#

The traditions of the festival focus around the full moon, which the Chinese believe is a symbol of reunion and happiness. Thank you! Mid-Autumn Festival Traditions

#Midautumn festival meaning free#

All proceeds help support our free global education website. By clicking through and making a purchase, we receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. Although many GDS students and staff could not celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with their families this year, the spirit of the holiday was not lost.Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. An ancient Chinese poem, “When Will the Moon Be Bright Again,” depicts this special day when “we wish each other a long life so as to share the beauty of this graceful moonlight, even though miles apart.”ĭuring this year of uncertainty, it is especially important that we make time to see our family, so family reunion is very precious. Autumn is the season for harvest, so on the night of the festival, people make delicious food and eat together with their family while watching the bright, round moon. Most importantly, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for family reunions. “We had mooncakes and our prayers and gratitude aren’t less sincere than any of the past years.” “Even during the special quarantine period, my family followed the Chinese traditions just like usual,” freshman Leah Li said. The traditional mooncake is the five-nuts mooncake, which is eaten because the pronunciation of “nut” and “compassionate” is the same in Chinese. “I went to a Chinese bakery and got mooncakes of different styles-the Guangdong cuisine and Suzhou cuisine.” Gathering with families, eating moon cakes, and appreciating the fullest moon with lanterns, the Mid. The Mid-Autumn Festival 2022 takes place on 10th, September 2022. It is also called the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival. “In the past years, the Chinese Culture Club had the Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations and mooncake tasting for faculty, staff and students at school,” Chinese Teacher Min Wang said. The Mid-Autumn Festival is the second most important festival for a family reunion in China after the Spring Festival. In order to commemorate the kind-hearted couple, people eat a sweet and round dessert (mooncake) that symbolizes Hou-Yi’s and Chang-E’s hopefully sweet reunion. They are primarily round, to reflect the shape of the moon, but can also be square-shaped. The distraught Hou-Yi bows down to the moon, praying and hoping that Chang-E can return to his side. Mooncakes are a type of snack or dessert pastry with a sweet or savory filling.

After Chang-E is threatened by evil people who want the elixir, she swallows it and becomes a moon fairy. His wife, Chang-E, is given the opportunity to safeguard the elixir. The festival is based on a legend that a hero, Hou-Yi, saves the earth and is rewarded with the elixir of life. It really was an extraordinary experience for me.” “But because of the coronavirus this year, I video-called my grandparents and appreciated the moon with them together.

“In the past years, I traveled to my grandparents’ house to celebrate this festival with them together,” freshman Hercules Zhang said.

Although it used to involve moon worship, in this day and age, it's more a time for gathering, prayers and is more about. This festival has been celebrated for a long time, with roots coming from Chinese mythology. It became an official festival during the Song Dynasty, marking the 15th day of the 9th lunar month as Mid-Autumn Festival where offerings were made to a well known lunar deity, Chang'e aka Moon Goddess of Immortality. In October, the traditional Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated.