The Chinese Moon Festival 2024: Traditions, Celebrations, and Significance
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The Chinese Moon Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节 zhōng qiū jié), is a traditional festival that has a significant cultural impact each year in China and other East Asian countries. It is a festival where, traditionally, families and friends would get together to celebrate, share mooncakes and stories, during the lunar calendar’s full moon on the 15th day of the eighth month.
We are always looking for ways to help students settle into new university towns, so if you are a student with Chinese heritage or an international student looking at ways to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival for the first time away from home, we’re here to offer guidance, as we do for other significant festivities throughout the year, such as how to celebrate Chinese New Year.
When is the Chinese Moon Festival?
One of the most important of all traditional festivals in China and other East Asian countries, the Chinese Moon Festival, or Mid-Autumn Festival takes place each year on the 15th day of the eight month of the Chinese calendar, when the moon is at its brightest and fullest. This is usually in September or October. That means that this year, the festival takes place on Tuesday, September 17th, 2024, and in 2025, it will fall on Monday. October 6th.
Why is the Chinese Moon Festival held?
The origins of the festival date back to 618-907 AD and the Tang Dynasty in China and comes from the ancient Chinese worship of celestial bodies. Traditionally, the sun, the moon, and the stars were celebrated, and it was believed that they had a big impact on seasonal changes and the success (or not) of farming in such an agricultural society. The Mid-Autumn Festival as we know it today comes from that form of ritual act centuries past.
How do people celebrate the Chinese Moon Festival?
The Mid-Autumn Festival is the second largest and most important festival of the year, after Chinese New Year, which shows you how important it is. It is celebrated in China, and by people in Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam, as well as by Chinese people living all over the world. People celebrate the Chinese Moon Festival by a few methods, whether in China with family or around the globe wherever they may be living at the time:
Spending time with family
In Chinese culture, when the moon is full it symbolises reunion, so you find that there are big family celebrations where everyone can worship the moon together, have a reunion banquet and share a mooncake to celebrate.
Celebrate a day off
On mainland China there is usually one day off for the festival day, usually connected to a weekend to allow for a 3-day holiday. If the festival lands close to China National Day (October 1st) then the holiday is 8 days long. In Hong Kong and Macau there is one day off but is the following day to the festival and not necessarily connected to a weekend. In Taiwan, the one day holiday always falls on the day of the festival.
Eat mooncakes
One of the popular ways to celebrate the Chinese Moon Festival is to eat mooncakes, which are a staple food of the festival each year. These pastries are supposed to be eaten around this time of year when the moon is at its brightest and fullest. They are sometimes given as gifts to friends, neighbours and family members, your fellow employees and students.
It is a significant gesture to offer mooncakes to other people at family gatherings and where there is a big public celebration. Mooncakes can have either a sweet or savoury filling and are shaped to be round (like the moon), but you might also sometimes see them square. The traditional Cantonese-style mooncakes are baked and moulded, golden-brown in colour and stamped with the filling name on top. Traditional fillings include red date paste (jujube), sweet bean paste, and lotus seed paste, Chinese sausage, roast pork and radish, mixed nuts and dried fruit. There are all sorts of options for fillings to suit a wide range of tastes.
Appreciate the moon
Even if you are a Chinese student living and studying in the UK or abroad, by appreciating the moon you are worshipping and standing before the same moon that your family and friends are back home, ensuring it is still a reunion. Worshipping the moon is a tradition dating back 3,000 years, where you sit at a table with mooncakes and other sacrifices facing the moon, offer up incense and sit in thought.
Drink Osmanthus wine
Osmanthus is in full blossom around the time of the festival, making it a good time for you to enjoy drinking osmanthus wine, a light yellow drink with a strong fragrance, a sweet, sour and soft taste. If you are unable to head home for the festivities, drinking some osmanthus wine as part of your personal celebrations is a good choice to make.
Hang festival lanterns
Decorate your student accommodation or event space with lanterns, allowing people to make wishes and have fun crafting together. If you are exploring an event with other international students in your town, this is a great way to come together and create something prior to the event.
We hope that this guide has given you all the information you need about the Mid-Autumn Festival (or the Chinese Moon Festival as it is commonly known), its traditions, significance, and how it is celebrated the world over. Whether you are celebrating the Chinese Moon Festival away from home and family for the first time, or just want to know more about different festivals, there is a lot of joy and custom to be found here. There are many different festivals throughout the year for you to explore as a student in the UK, from traditional cultural festivals from around the world to music festivals, art, literature and many more. We are always looking for ways to keep you as informed as possible about all aspects of life, not just student life.
