The Mid-Autumn Festival,also known as the Moon Festival,Zhongqiu Festival,or in Chinese,Zhongqiujie (traditional Chinese:中秋节),is a popular harvest festival celebrated by Chinese people and Vietnamese people (even though they celebrate it differently),dating back over 3,000 years to moon worship in China's Shang Dynasty.It was first called Zhongqiu Jie (literally "Mid-Autumn Festival") in the Zhou Dynasty.In Malaysia,Singapore,and the Philippines,it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar,which is usually around late September or early October in the Gregorian calendar.It is a date that parallels the autumn and spring Equinoxes(二分点) of the solar calendar,when the moon is supposedly at its fullest and roundest.The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake,of which there are many different varieties.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the few most important holidays in the Chinese calendar,the others being Chinese New Year and Winter Solstice(冬至),and is a legal holiday in several countries.Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date.Traditionally on this day,Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon,and eat moon cakes and pomelos together.Accompanying the celebration,there are additional cultural or regional customs,such as:
* Eating mooncakes outside under the moon
* Putting pomelo rinds on one's head
* Carrying brightly lit lanterns,lighting lanterns on towers,floating sky lanterns
* Burning incense in reverence to deities including Chang'e (simplified Chinese:嫦娥; traditional Chinese:嫦娥)
* Planting Mid-Autumn trees
* Collecting dandelion leaves and distributing them evenly among family members
* Fire Dragon Dances
Shops selling mooncakes before the festival often display pictures of Chang'e floating to the moon.
