The Mooncake Festival

The Mooncake Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, is a prominent festival in China, Japan, Mongolia, and Sri Lanka. It is observed on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese LuniSolar Calendar, which corresponds to the full moon night in early September or early October on the Gregorian Calendar. The Mooncake Festival, according to Chinese custom, is a day for family and friends to express gratitude for the fall harvest, good health, and wealth. Because the Mooncake Festival is one of the Chinese’s most important festivals, they celebrate it with great fanfare.

Festival of the Mid-Autumn

The question arises when The Mooncake Festival is held in 2022. The answer to this is the Mooncake Festival falls on September 10th (Saturday). The Chinese have a 3-day public occasion from September 10th to 12th. “The Mooncake Festival” is also celebrated by numerous Asian groups other than China. In China, it’s a gathering time for families, like Thanksgiving, while it’s more similar to a kids’ day in Vietnam.

The Mooncake Festival is the second most significant celebration in China after the Chinese New Year. Chinese individuals celebrate it through social events for meals, adoring the moon, lighting paper lamps, eating mooncakes, etc.

How the Chinese Celebrate The Mooncake Festival

As the second most critical festival in China, the Mooncake Festival is applauded in various standard ways. Below are a few of the major ways practised traditionally by the entire Chinese people.

Valuing Family meetings

The moon’s roundness addresses the party of the family in Chinese characters. Families will eat together on the evening of the Mooncake Festival.

Savouring Mooncakes

Mooncakes are the most desired delicacy for the Mooncake Festival, considering their round shape and sweet flavour. Family members following the theme of the mooncake festival, for the most part, gather around and cut a mooncake into pieces and savour the delicious mooncake.

Nowadays, mooncakes are made in various shapes and flavours, making them appealing and pleasing to various customers. In some retail outlets, gigantic mooncakes may be displayed to attract clients.

Praising the Moon

The full moon is the picture of family social affairs in Chinese culture. Contemplatively, it is said that “the moon on the evening of The Mooncake Festival is the most magnificent and brilliant”.

Making Colourful artefacts

The theme of the mooncake festival is to have a happy reunion and togetherness. It’s the youths’ main activity. Mid-autumn lights have many shapes and can seem to be animals, plants, or blooms. The lights are hung in trees or houses, creating extraordinary circumstances around evening.

In present situations, other than the traditional activities, various Chinese people send different red envelopes and go during the 3-day public event to praise the festival.

Nations that celebrate the Mooncake Festival

In numerous Asian people groups other than China, The Mooncake Festival is generally celebrated. Many fascinating exercises with one-of-a-kind neighbourhood highlights are held.

In Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines — three nations with numerous ethnic Chinese residents — mostly Chinese tradition is followed, such as lighting lamps and winged serpent moves. The date is likewise equivalent to in China, without any public holiday.

In different nations, like Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam, which have likewise been profoundly affected by Chinese culture, new festivals have been derived from their unique cultures. However, the theme of the mooncake festival remains the same as in Chinese Tradition.

Mooncakes are the limelight delicacy of Mid-Autumn food in China. They are conventional Chinese baked items. Chinese individuals relate the roundness of mooncakes to an image of gathering and satisfaction.

Different dishes are eaten during the celebration, like crabs, pumpkins, pomelos, and grapes. Individuals appreciate them at their freshest, most nutritious time and partake in their favourable implications, especially connected with round food varieties.

In reality, a supermoon (when the moon is nearest to the Earth) is not necessary to appear in Mid-Autumn than some other season.

Likewise, the reap moon (the full moon nearest to the fall equinox) doesn’t necessarily, in every case, harmonise impeccably with The Mooncake Festival, which is in opposition to prevalent thinking that The Mooncake Festival night is the greatest night to partake in the radiant full moon.

Gifts during The Mooncake Festival

In this mid-autumn festival, individuals love to give gifts to their friends and family, companions, guardians, different family members, and staff. Based on the theme of the mooncake festival, the Mooncakes are the top choice among all gifts.

Recently, mooncakes have been made in different shapes to make them alluring, similar to creature shapes, blossom shapes, love heart shapes, and so on, yet round mooncakes are as yet cherished by the vast majority for their reunion symbolism.

Conclusion

In specific years, the full moon is on the festival day, while in different years, the full moon happens the day after the festival. It doesn’t impact Chinese people’s pleasure in the moon on the evening of The Mooncake Festival because the theme of the Mooncake Festival is the delight of a family assembling is seen as more critical than astronomy. Some Chinese people make extraordinary wishes on the lights for prosperity, harvests, marriage, love, tutoring, etc. In a few open areas, neighbourhood people light lanterns that fly extremely high or make lights that float on streams and convey them like petitions of dreams working out true to form.