The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional cultural festival on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. It is named because it is exactly the middle of the three autumns. Some places also set the Mid-Autumn Festival on the 16th day of the eighth lunar month.
The Mid-Autumn Festival began in the early Tang Dynasty and was popular in the Song Dynasty. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it had become one of the traditional Chinese festivals on par with the Spring Festival. Influenced by Chinese culture, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also a traditional festival for some countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia, especially for local Chinese and overseas Chinese. Since 2008, the Mid-Autumn Festival has been listed as a national statutory holiday. On May 20, 2006, the State Council included it in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists.
Since ancient times, the Mid-Autumn Festival has had customs such as offering sacrifices to the moon, appreciating the moon, worshiping the moon, eating moon cakes, appreciating osmanthus, and drinking osmanthus wine, which have been passed down to this day and have lasted for a long time. The Mid-Autumn Festival uses the roundness of the moon to foretell the reunion of people, to express the feelings of missing home and relatives, and to pray for a good harvest and happiness, becoming a colorful and precious cultural heritage.
