Mid-Autumn Festival in China // What It Is & How to Celebrate

Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节 Zhōngqiū Jié) is a major traditional Chinese festival celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar, when the full moon is at its brightest.

Also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, it centres on family reunions, moon gazing, eating mooncakes, carrying lanterns, and retelling legends such as Chang’E, the Jade Rabbit, and Wu Gang.

In 2025 it falls on 6 October; in 2026 on 25 September. It is a statutory public holiday in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore.

On the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar, is the Mid-Autumn Festival.

DID YOU KNOW: In 2020 this actually fell on China’s National Day, October 1st.

This is a major traditional Chinese festival which is widely celebrated in all parts of the country.

There are three main legends surrounding the festival: the legend of Chang’E, the Jade Rabbit, and Wu Gang. We cover Chang’E in full below, and we’ve added the other two further down so you get the full picture.

Mid-Autumn Festival | Upcoming Dates

Mid-Autumn Festival | The Celebration

Mid-Autumn Festival | History and Origins

Mid-Autumn Festival | Other Names

Mid-Autumn Festival | Traditions

Mid-Autumn Festival | Public Holiday Status

Mid-Autumn Festival | Moon Cakes

Mid-Autumn Festival | Legend of Chang’E

Mid-Autumn Festival | Other Legends

Mid-Autumn Festival | Around the World

Mid-Autumn Festival | Mid-Autumn Festival Greetings

Mid-Autumn Festival | FAQs

Mid-Autumn Festival | Upcoming Dates

The festival always falls on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar, which means the Gregorian date shifts each year.

Mid-Autumn Festival | The Celebration

Also known as “The Moon Festival”, 中秋节 (zhōngqiū jié), it is celebrated at that time of the year when the moon is at its brightest and fullest.

What is Mid-Autumn Festival also called?

You’ll hear this festival referred to by several names, all pointing to the same celebration:

• Zhongqiu Jie: the standard Mandarin name, literally meaning ‘middle-autumn festival’
• Moon Festival: the most common English nickname, referencing the central role of the full moon
• Mooncake Festival: popular in Singapore and Malaysia, emphasising the most iconic food
• Harvest Moon Festival: occasionally used in English to highlight the harvest origins

Whichever name you use, the celebration is the same: family, food, full moon, and the legends that tie it all together.

According to Chinese tradition, the roundness of the full moon is strictly connected to a sense of completeness and togetherness, so Mid-Autumn Festival is a time to be with family.

The symbolism of the full moon

In Chinese culture, the full moon carries deep symbolic weight. The character 圆 (yuán) means both ’round’ and ‘complete or harmonious’, and that double meaning runs through everything about Mid-Autumn Festival.

The roundness of the moon represents family unity and wholeness. Mooncakes are round for the same reason. The tradition of cutting one mooncake into pieces for every family member present is a physical expression of that togetherness.

For people who are away from home (studying abroad, working in another city, or living overseas) the full moon becomes a shared point of connection. Everyone under the same moon on the same night.

The poet Su Dongpo captured this in one of China’s most famous lines, written during Mid-Autumn Festival while separated from his brother: ‘May we both be blessed with longevity, and share the beauty of this moon, though far apart.’

Mid-Autumn Festival | History and Origins

Mid-Autumn Festival has roots stretching back roughly 3,000 years to the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC), when emperors performed harvest rituals and moon-worship ceremonies in autumn.

The festival originally served as a harvest thanksgiving: farmers celebrated the end of the summer harvest season under the year’s fullest moon. The timing on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month was chosen precisely because the moon is at its brightest and most perfectly round.

It was not until the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) that Mid-Autumn Festival was formally declared an official public holiday. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang is said to have hosted elaborate moon-gazing banquets in the palace, which helped spread the festival’s customs through the wider population.

By the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD), mooncakes had become a central part of the celebration, and the festival had taken on much of the form we know today.

TIP 💡: The Chinese name meaning is ‘middle-autumn festival’, where 中 (zhōng) means middle, 秋 (qiū) means autumn, and 节 (jié) means festival.

Mid-Autumn Festival | Traditions

Here’s what you’ll actually see and experience during Mid-Autumn Festival across China.

Family Reunion Dinner

Much like Chinese New Year, Mid-Autumn Festival is fundamentally about coming home. Families travel from across the country to share a meal together under the full moon. The roundness of the moon and of mooncakes is a deliberate symbol of family unity and wholeness.

Moon Gazing and Moon Worship

After dinner, families head to rooftops, courtyards, or parks to admire the moon together. In a more traditional setting, you’ll see offerings laid out: mooncakes, pomelo, incense, and candles placed on a table facing the moon as a gesture of respect and gratitude. Moon worship has ancient roots tied to the harvest thanksgiving origins of the festival.

Making and Carrying Lanterns

Children carry brightly lit lanterns through streets and parks. Round ones symbolise the full moon, while more modern celebrations feature elaborate animal and cartoon shapes. In Guangdong province, making lanterns from pomelo skins is a beloved hands-on tradition. Some cities host large public lantern displays.

Mooncakes and Gifting

Exchanging mooncakes as gifts is as central to Mid-Autumn as giving red envelopes at Chinese New Year. See the mooncake section below for the full story on flavours, regional varieties, and gifting etiquette.

Alongside all this, people burn joss sticks, offer sacrifices to the moon, eat the typical Mid-Autumn foods, and share their best wishes for family members and absent friends while retelling the magical legends behind the festival.

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Mid-Autumn Festival | Is It a Public Holiday?

Yes, Mid-Autumn Festival is an official public holiday in mainland China.

Since 2008, it has been a statutory holiday, typically granting workers a 3-day break when combined with surrounding weekend adjustments.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

• 2025: The festival falls on 6 October. Workers receive 1 October (National Day) through 8 October as a combined Golden Week and Mid-Autumn break.
• 2026: The festival falls on 25 September, creating a separate Mid-Autumn holiday period distinct from Golden Week.

The exact days off vary year to year depending on how the government schedules make-up working days. It’s always worth checking the official State Council announcement each December for the following year’s schedule.

Outside mainland China, Mid-Autumn Festival is also a public holiday in Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore, and is widely celebrated (though not always a public holiday) in Malaysia, Taiwan, and among Chinese communities worldwide.

At night people either go on roofs or gather in courtyards to admire the moon with families.

This festival is woven deep into Chinese society and is believed to have been celebrated as far back as 3,000 years ago during the Shang Dynasty.

However, it only became an official Chinese holiday during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD).

The most popular legend is “Chang’E Flying to the Moon”. See more below.

Mid-Autumn Festival | Moon Cakes

Any self-respecting Mid-Autumn feast features a whole range of seasonal foods, but the most traditional and important dessert of this festival is the Mooncake.

Mooncakes get most of the attention, but a traditional Mid-Autumn feast includes much more. Here’s what you might find on the table:

• Pomelo: The large citrus fruit is a symbol of prosperity and family reunion. In Guangdong, children hollow out the skin to make lanterns.
• Taro: Particularly popular in Cantonese tradition. The word for taro in Cantonese sounds similar to ‘luck’, making it a natural festival food.
• River snails: Especially eaten in Guangdong during Mid-Autumn. Local legend holds that eating river snails during the festival improves eyesight.
• Pumpkin: Associated with health and longevity in Chinese folk tradition.
• Duck and crab: Seasonal autumn foods that appear on Mid-Autumn menus across China, particularly river crab in Shanghai and Jiangsu.
• Osmanthus wine: Wine fermented with osmanthus blossoms, tied directly to the Wu Gang legend and the osmanthus tree on the moon.

The most iconic food of all, of course, remains the mooncake.

Mooncakes (月饼 yuèbǐng) are traditional Chinese pastries, typically made from wheat flour with a variety of dense fillings including lotus seed paste, red bean paste, mixed nuts, salted egg yolk, and pork.

But not all mooncakes are the same. Regional styles vary quite noticeably:

• Cantonese mooncakes: The most widely recognised style. Thin, glossy golden-brown crust with rich, sweet fillings. Often contain salted egg yolk to represent the full moon. Popular across mainland China, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
• Suzhou-style mooncakes: Flaky, layered pastry more like a puff pastry shell. Often filled with sweet or savoury options including rose paste and minced pork. A regional favourite in Jiangsu province.
• Snow-skin mooncakes: A modern, no-bake style with a soft, chewy outer layer made from glutinous rice flour. Served chilled. Originated in Hong Kong and popular for their lighter taste and pastel colours.

Gifting mooncakes is a major Mid-Autumn custom. Boxes are often elaborate and premium. A few etiquette points worth knowing: gift boxes usually come in sets of four or eight (both auspicious numbers), you don’t typically open the box in front of the giver, and it’s polite to reciprocate if a colleague gifts you mooncakes.

Mooncakes symbolise prosperity, family reunion, and one cake, measuring about 10 cm in diameter and 3-4 cm thick, is traditionally cut into pieces that equal the number of people in the family.

Baking a mooncake at home takes a long time, so most people prefer to purchase their cakes in bakeries and supermarkets.

Automation has speeded up the preparation process considerably and mooncakes have become a big business.

Even though older people complain about younger generations’ children not appreciating the cakes the way they used to, Chinese bakeries, confectionery companies and food-related chains are finding ways to make the pastry into something modernised and cool.

Recent contemporary forms are even made from ice-cream, chocolate, cream cheese, jelly and matcha. Some bakeries offer vegan options too.

If you need a sneaky drink to get you through the hectic holidays, we found a whisky-filled moon cake too!

Packaging has also become more extravagant and quirky in modern times, with a huge range of colors, designs and shapes available. We even spotted a KFC bucket shaped mooncake box online, which, even more oddly, actually looked pretty fancy!

What quirky moon cake flavors or box designs have you seen before? Let us know in the comments ⬇️

Now that you know everything you need to know about the Mid-Autumn Festival, go buy a mooncake, look up to the sky, enjoy the full experience of this beautiful Chinese tradition and take it all in.

Now let’s talk about the legend of the Mid-Autumn Festival and how it came about…

Mid-Autumn Festival | Legend of Chang’E

Now for the most beloved part of Mid-Autumn Festival: the story of Chang’E, the moon goddess.

According to Chinese tradition, during Mid-Autumn Festival families gather for dinner, people stare at the bright full moon while having mooncakes as desserts and listening to the magical legends explaining the origin of the festival.

Among them, the most popular one is “Chang’E Flying to the Moon”.

According to this legend, the beautiful Chang’E (嫦娥) was married to an expert archer, Hou-Yi (后羿). At that time ten suns rose in the sky.

Crops were dying and people were suffering, so one day Hou-Yi used his bow and arrows to shoot down nine of them, leaving just one sun. For this heroic gesture, he was given an elixir of immortality.

Unwilling to take it, he asked his wife Chang’E to keep it safe.

One day, in an emergency situation, the lady took the elixir and became immortal.

As soon as she swallowed the potion, she started to float and flew off, until she finally landed on the moon.

Deeply missing his wife, Hou-Yi moved a table under the moon, preparing some food on it in order to make her come back to him.

Since then, during the festival, people have offered lots of food to worship Chang’E on the Mid-Autumn Festival night.

Usually, Chinese children are told Chang’E is not alone on the moon because the immortal Jade Rabbit lives there with her…

Want to experience Mid-Autumn Festival in China first-hand, with mooncakes, lanterns, and all?

Find your perfect Mandarin program at LTL and time your studies to coincide with the festival. There’s no better way to make the language and culture click than living it in real time.

Mid-Autumn Festival | Other Legends

The Legend of Hou Yi and the Immortality Elixir

The Chang’E legend is inseparable from the story of her husband, the archer Hou Yi.

According to legend, there were once ten suns in the sky, scorching the earth and ruining crops. The heroic archer Hou Yi shot down nine of them, saving humanity. As a reward, the Queen Mother of the West gave him an elixir of immortality.

Hou Yi did not want to live forever without his beloved wife Chang’E, so he asked her to keep the elixir safe. But his apprentice Peng Meng grew greedy and tried to steal it. Cornered and with no choice, Chang’E drank the elixir herself rather than let it fall into the wrong hands, and floated up to the moon.

Hou Yi was heartbroken. Every year on the night of the full harvest moon, he would lay out her favourite foods and gaze up at the sky. Over time, people joined him, and a tradition was born.

Jade Rabbit

The story goes that there were once three animals who lived in a forest: a rabbit, a fox and a monkey.

Three immortals reincarnated themselves as three old beggars.

They went to the forest and begged the animals to give them food.

The fox and the monkey both gave food to the immortals, but the rabbit didn’t have any food.

The rabbit felt guilty so she said “I’m sorry I can’t offer you any food, but I can give you myself” and jumped into the fire.

The three immortals were so moved by the rabbit’s sacrifice that they made her immortal and sent her up to live in the Moon Palace.

The rabbit is now known as the Jade Rabbit in English, although the most common name in Chinese actually translates as Moon Rabbit (月兔 yuè tù).

Wu Gang

Wu Gang (吴刚 wúgāng) is the third legend of Mid-Autumn Festival, and it takes place on the moon itself.

Wu Gang was a man who wanted to achieve immortality. He pestered the gods until they allowed him to study celestial arts, but he kept making mistakes. As a punishment, the Jade Emperor banished him to the moon and ordered him to chop down a giant osmanthus tree.

The catch? Every time Wu Gang’s axe strikes the tree, the wood instantly heals itself. He has been chopping forever, never finishing the job.

Many Chinese people say that you can still see the shadow of the tree on the moon and if you listen carefully can hear Wu Gang still chopping, trying to finish his never ending task.

This legend is one reason osmanthus flowers are so closely associated with Mid-Autumn Festival. Osmanthus wine and osmanthus-scented mooncakes are traditional festival foods rooted in this story.

Mid-Autumn Festival | Celebrated Around the World

Mid-Autumn Festival is not just a China event. Wherever there are Chinese communities, you’ll find lanterns, mooncakes, and moon gazing.

Singapore takes Mid-Autumn seriously. The Chinatown district transforms into a sea of red lanterns for weeks beforehand, and the festival is a public holiday. Gardens by the Bay hosts large-scale lantern displays, and local bakeries release limited-edition snow-skin mooncake flavours that sell out fast. LTL has a school in Singapore, so if you’re studying there in autumn, this is an unmissable experience.

DID YOU KNOW || In Malaysia, cities like Kuala Lumpur, George Town, and Ipoh mark the festival with lantern processions, mooncake fairs, and lion dance performances. It’s not a national public holiday in Malaysia, but community celebrations are vibrant.

Major Chinatowns in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and Boston mark the festival with street fairs, mooncake sales, and community events. Many universities with large Chinese student populations hold campus celebrations too.

If you want to experience the festival in its most authentic form, there’s genuinely nothing like being in China itself during the week of the full moon.

Beijing is one of the best places in China to experience Mid-Autumn Festival. The city’s hutong neighbourhoods and temple parks come alive with lanterns and family gatherings.

Mid-Autumn Festival | Greetings

So, now that you’re all clued up on mooncakes and legends, let’s take a look at some common festival greetings you could say to your Chinese friends to spread some Mid-Autumn Festival cheer!

First and foremost, let’s look at the most common phrases you’ll see and hear around the holiday period:

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

中秋节快乐

zhōngqiū jié kuàilè!

Other (and slightly more complicated!) phrases include the following two, which emphasize the family and reunion element of the Mid-Autumn festival：

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! May the round moon bring you a happy family and a successful future.

祝福中秋佳节快乐，月圆人圆事事圆满.

Zhùfú Zhōngqiū jiā jié kuàilè, yuè yuán rén yuán shìshì yuánmǎn.

Even though we’re miles apart, we wish each other a long life so we can share the beauty of the moon together.

但愿人长久，千里共婵娟

Dàn yuàn rén chángjiǔ, qiānlǐ gòng chánjuān

Now that you know all about the festival, here at LTL we want to wish you:

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

中秋节快乐 zhōngqiū jié kuàilè!

Mid-Autumn Festival in China // FAQs

If you want to immerse in Beijing’s history and culture while picking up Mandarin, autumn is a genuinely beautiful time to study Mandarin in Beijing with LTL.