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Julianna Louise Untiveros Barcela

The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month – which in 2022 is September 10. The festival is celebrated by cultures throughout East Asia, and by Chinese immigrants and their descendants in Southeast Asian countries.
We take a look at how it is celebrated in five countries.
Thailand
The Moon Praying Festival has a traditional tale far different from the one told in Hong Kong of Chang’e and her ascent to the moon.
What is Mid-Autumn Festival all about? Chinese legends and how it is celebrated
Legend has it that, on the night of the festival, the Eight Immortals – legendary figures in traditional Chinese culture – fly to the Moon Palace to give peaches and their birthday greetings to Guanyin, the Chinese deity of mercy and compassion.
As such, families pray to the moon and gift each other peach-shaped cakes during the festival.

Many Mid-Autumn traditions remain the same – mooncakes, especially durian-flavoured ones, are popular. Another commonly seen food is the grapefruit-like pomelo, as its round shape is symbolic of reunions and gatherings.
Other activities include boarding a cruise to watch the moon at Siam Bay by Ko Chang island.
How to make traditional mooncakes for Mid-Autumn Festival
Vietnam
The legend behind the Tet Trung Thu, or Children’s Festival, tells the story of a man named Cuoi, who had a magical life-giving banyan tree that could only be watered with clean water.
One day Cuoi’s wife urinated on it, and it began to grow and grow. Cuoi tried to chop it down, but instead got stuck and floated up into the sky. Eventually, he landed on the moon.
Children set up lanterns on the night of Tet Trung Thu to light his way back to Earth. Vietnamese say that, if you look closely enough, you can see his shadow on the moon sitting underneath a tree.

For the Vietnamese, Tet Trung Thu is a time to spend with loved ones after a season of hard work, and families welcome the festival by placing trays of fruit and cakes on their ancestral altars and eating mooncakes.
The most common types of mooncake are the soft, sticky, mochi-like banh deos and baked banh nuong cakes.
On the night of the full moon, a male dancer wearing a round happy-faced mask parades the streets, bringing people joy with his comical gestures.
The mask is supposed to embody Ong Dia, the God of the Earth who symbolises prosperity and who serves as a reminder to the people to be thankful for the land’s harvests.

The Philippines
Nearly one million ethnic Chinese live in the Philippines, where the Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated with two days of displays of banners and lanterns, especially in Chinatown in the capital, Manila.
Chinese Filipinos like to play Pua Tiong Chiu, a popular dice game that is said to have originated from China’s Fujian province – where most of the country’s Chinese immigrants first came.
The game consists of rolling six dice into a large bowl; the winner, based on number combinations, gets mooncake as a prize. To win the largest piece of mooncake, you need to roll at least four “fours” or five of the same number.

Japan
Japan’s Mid-Autumn Festival – known as Tsukimi, Otsukimi or Jugoya – is also a moon festival.
Residents decorate the streets with pampas grass (susuki) to protect against evil spirits. Certain food offerings also double as decorations. Taro plants that have sprouted shoots, for instance, are symbolic of a prosperous family.

According to Japanese legend, there is a rabbit that lives on the moon and pounds mochi rice cakes with a mallet and mortar. Some say this fable is based on a Buddhist tale, others say it has to do with wordplay because the Japanese term mochizuki means “full moon” but also sounds like “mochi pounding”.
The Japanese eat rabbit-shaped Tsukimi dango, a mochi-like sweet rice dumpling, for good health and happiness. Pyramid stacks of 15 dangos are displayed to illustrate the 15th day of the month, or 12 to represent the number of months in a year.


The white colour and roundness of this dessert are meant to mimic the beauty of the moon – it is a common theme found with other celebratory foods such as Tsukimi soba or udon, which is served with egg yolk.
People also feast on the season’s fresh produce, such as sweet potatoes, chestnuts, beans, taro, edamame and sake. When the moon is not visible, the festival is called Mugetsu (no moon) or Ugetsu (rain moon), but celebrations still go on – such as tea ceremonies, poetry readings and drumming performances.

South Korea
Chuseok, or Hangawi, is South Korea’s Mid-Autumn Festival and Thanksgiving Day. It is a three-day holiday in which people thank the heavens for the year’s successful harvest and ask for more to come.
Some traditions bear similarities with Chinese ones, as Koreans travel and take gifts to their parents’ homes to wish them a long and healthy life.

Each morning of the festival, the family conducts the charye, a tea ritual to pay respect to their ancestors. First, the oldest son helps set the table. Then everyone bows multiple times in an order based on gender and age – it is done for good luck in the coming year.
Koreans eat songpyeon, a kind of Korean rice cake filled with sweetened sesame seeds, beans or chestnuts and folded into a crescent moon shape, during the festival. They also eat jeon, which are pancakes stuffed with kimchi, zucchini, mushrooms and meat.
Traditional folk dances, wrestling matches and visits to grave sites are also held during the three-day festival.


Mid-Autumn Festival beyond China: how other Asian countries celebrate it, what they eat and the myths and legends associated with it

People praying in Thailand in 2016 during the Moon Praying Festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated in many different ways outside China. Photo: Shutterstock

Performers celebrate the Moon Praying Festival in Thailand in 2019. Photo: AFP

The streets are lit with lanterns during Tet Trung Thu in Vietnam. Photo: Facebook

Children stand around a big mooncake on display during a celebration for the Mid-Autumn Festival in the Philippines in 2017. Photo: Xinhua

 A street in Nagasaki, Japan, is all decked out for the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2015. Photo: Shutterstock

The Japanese eat rabbit-shaped Tsukimi dango, a mochi-like sweet rice dumpling, for good health and happiness. Photo: Facebook

People pay their respects before an altar near the demilitarised zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea in 2021. Photo: AFP

Charye is an important part of Chuseok in South Korea. Photo: Shutterstock

How does the Mid-Autumn Festival story of Chang’e end? Was the Chinese moon goddess selfish or selfless?

Mid-Autumn Festival in Hong Kong – from mooncakes and lanterns to fire dragon dances, how it is celebrated

Mid-Autumn Festival for homesick Hong Kong migrants to UK – the mooncakes they’ll eat and the festivities local Chinese communities put on

Mid-Autumn Festival visual guide: from mooncakes, lanterns to how it’s celebrated

What is Mid-Autumn Festival all about? Chinese legends behind it and how it is celebrated

Lifestyle

Arts & Culture

The lantern festival held at Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple in 2021. Photo: Dickson Lee

Lantern displays are an integral part of Mid Autumn Festival celebrations in Hong Kong. Photo: Dickson Lee

Mooncakes are synonymous with Mid-Autumn Festival. One of the most popular bakeries for mooncakes, Tai Tung Bakery in Yuen Long, sells 90,000 boxes of mooncakes every year. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Children play with candles and lanterns to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay. Photo: Sam Tsang

People pose for pictures against a giant moon in Kwun Tong, Hong Kong, to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2021. Photo: Nora Tam

Residents of Tai Hang have celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival with a fire dragon dance since 1880. Photo: M. Chan 

Mooncakes these days come in many different flavours. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Why do we eat mooncakes at Mid-Autumn Festival? From the legend of moon goddess Chang’e to a folk tale about Ming Dynasty revolutionaries, the true history of a quintessential Chinese tradition

Nothing says Mid-Autumn Festival like mooncakes – pictured here from Ying Jee Club. Photo: handout

(190914) -- BEIJING, Sept. 14, 2019 (Xinhua) -- A woman in Han-style costume holds a rabbit, a traditional icon of Mid-Autumn Festival, in a museum of Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, Sept. 13, 2019. (Xinhua/Li Ziheng)

Osmanthus and rice wine mooncakes. Photo: Dim Sum Library

Rabbits are a common decorative symbol for Mid-Autumn Festival.  Photo: Vive Cake Boutique

Gluten-free mooncakes from The Cakery have come a long way from just lotus seed paste and salted egg yolk fillings.  Photo: The Cakery

Chang’e drank the ellxir of immortality - but why? There are different versions of the Mid-Autumn Festival myth. Image: SCMP Graphics

Mid-Autumn Festival in Hong Kong: things to do, from making mooncakes, or donating some to the needy, to a Disney movie night under the full moon

People select lanterns at a shop in the Tai Kiu Market in Yuen Long. Photo: Felix Wong

Looking for the best Mid-Autumn Festival lantern? Check out the Tai Kiu Market in Yuen Long. For other festive activities, there is mooncake making, moon-gazing and more. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Sign up for a snowy mooncake making workshop at Haw Par Mansion in Tai Hang. Photo: Shutterstock

Learn about the moon and the other celestial objects in the sky at Ocean Park this year at the Mid-Autumn Moongazing Night. Photo: Ocean Park

Lounge on beanbags and picnic mats while watching classic Disney films. Photo: Hong Kong Disneyland

A store at Fu Lee Loy Shopping Centre in North Point. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

One of the lanterns at the Mid-Autumn Festival display at Victoria Park in 2021. Photo: Nora Tam

Feeding Hong Kong has set up 53 community collection points across the city for people to donate their unwanted or extra mooncakes. Photo: Feeding Hong Kong

I’m not over the moon about mooncakes – in my reality, everybody hates them. So why are we still eating these Mid-Autumn Festival gifts?

We eat mooncakes out of a sense of tradition or duty, but how many people really like them? Photo: SCMP

As well as traditional mooncakes (above), there are many alternatives available these days. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Mooncakes are sweet, stodgy, high in cholesterol and calories, and in a recent survey, many respondents said they would prefer to receive a fruit basket instead of mooncakes. Photo: SCMP

Packaging for mooncakes gets more elaborate each year, but it all ends up in the landfill. Photo: Rosewood Hotel

Mabel Lui

Kevin Kwong

In the Mid-Autumn Festival legend of how Chang’e the Chinese moon goddess ended up on the moon, did she sacrifice herself or give in to greed?


Chinese culture

Mid-Autumn Festival

Sarah Vega

Mid-Autumn Festival: Fortnum & Mason returns with its collection of luxury mooncakes for Hong Kong customers

Hong Kong chocolate maker for Hershey, Mars and Godiva finds sweet success with move into mooncake production

How halva, baklava and Turkish delight were baked into Chinese cuisine centuries ago, and the mooncake’s Arabian cousin

The second biggest Chinese holiday of the year is celebrated with the giving of mooncakes, family dinners of auspicious autumn foods and, in two villages on Hong Kong Island, a fire dragon dance usually.


Hong Kong culture

Hong Kong

Food and Drinks

Delle Chan

A handful of Asian businesses in London, like in Chinatown (pictured), are seeking to mark the Mid-Autumn Festival for those homesick for Hong Kong. Photo: Getty Images

Simon Cheng Man-kit is a 30-year-old activist and former British consulate employee. Photo: Simon Cheng Man-kit

Two Chinese workmen work as a team attaching paper lanterns to a shop in London’s Chinatown. Photo: Getty Images

People play with lanterns at the Mid-Autumn Lantern Carnival in Victoria Park in Causeway Bay in 2008. Photo: SCMP

London’s Chinatown celebrates the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2017. Photo: Getty Images

Golden Gate Cake Shop has created classic lotus seed mooncakes, as well as an assortment of mini mooncakes. Photo: Golden Gate Cake Shop

In honour of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Bubblewrap Waffle in London will be offering a limited-edition creation – waffles topped with matcha gelato, adzuki beans, strawberries and a bunny-shaped piece of panna cotta. Photo: Bubblewrap Waffle 

Mei Ume, at the Four Seasons Hotel London at Ten Trinity Square, has launched a Mid-Autumn Festival menu featuring snow skin mooncakes. Photo: Mei Ume

Hong Kong ‘hidden gem’ fish ball noodles, delicious plant-based wraps, modern dim sum – where the director of an LGBT film festival likes to eat

Meddling with mooncakes is a sign that we have forgotten the essence of the 3,000-year-old Mid-Autumn Festival

Why the Chinese celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival – a brief history of the occasion

Hong Kong people who recently migrated to Britain and feel homesick this Mid-Autumn Festival will still have their pick of some tasty mooncakes, and can join in Chinese community festivities.


Britain

Chinese overseas

Lau Ka-kuen

Dennis Wong

The second biggest Chinese holiday of the year is full of tradition – from mooncakes, lanterns to how it’s celebrated, and what the legend is behind the festival.


Mid-Autumn Festival is the second biggest Chinese holiday of the year,  and it means lots of mooncakes and, in one corner of Hong Kong, the likely return of the Tai Hang fire dragon dance.



The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated throughout East Asia. We take a look at how it is celebrated in five countries
In Thailand, people give each other peach-shaped cakes. In Japan, the festival’s legend focuses on a mochi-making rabbit that lives on the moon



The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated throughout East Asia. We look at how five countries mark the occasion, the special foods they eat and the myths and legends associated with it.
