Mid Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival
Mid-Autumn Festival decorations in Beijing
Official name	中秋节 (Zhōngqiū Jié in mainland China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore; Jūng-chāu Jit in Hong Kong and Macau) Tết Trung Thu (Vietnam)
Also called	Moon Festival/Celebration
Observed by	China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia
Type	Cultural, Religious
Significance	Celebrates the end of the autumn harvest
Observances	Consumption of mooncakes Consumption of cassia wine
Date	15th day of the 8th lunar month
2016 date	September 15
2017 date	October 4
2018 date	September 24
Related to	Chuseok (in Korea), Tsukimi (in Japan), Uposatha of Ashvini/Krittika (similar festivals that generally occur on the same day in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia)

Mid-Autumn Festival
"Mid-Autumn Festival" in Traditional (top) and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese	中秋节
Literal meaning	"Mid-Autumn Festival"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhōngqiūjié Wade–Giles Chung1-ch'iu1 chieh2 IPA [ʈʂʊ́ŋ.tɕʰjóu tɕjě] Wu Suzhounese Tson-tsheu tsìh Hakka Romanization Chung ciu tset Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Jūng-chāu jit Jyutping Zung1-cau1 zit3
Min Chinese name
Traditional Chinese
Literal meaning	"Festival of the Eighth Month"
Transcriptions Southern Min Hokkien POJ Peh-go̍eh-cheh Eastern Min Fuzhou BUC Báik-nguŏk-cáik
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese
Chữ Nôm

The Mid-Autumn Festival (traditional Chinese: 中秋節; simplified Chinese: 中秋节; Vietnamese: tết Trung Thu) is a harvest festival celebrated by ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese people. The festival is held on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar with full moon at night, corresponding to late September to early October of the Gregorian calendar with full moon at night.

Mainland China listed the festival as an "intangible cultural heritage" in 2006 and a public holiday in 2008. It is also a public holiday in Taiwan and in Hong Kong. In the Vietnamese culture, it is considered the second-most important holiday tradition after Tết.

Due to China's influence, Mid-Autumn Festival is also celebrated in other parts of Asia. Mooncakes have also appeared in western countries as a form of delicacy.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is also known by other names, such as:

The festival celebrates three fundamental concepts which are closely tied to one another:

Traditions and myths surrounding the festival are formed around these three concepts, although traditions have changed over time due to changes in technology, science, economy, culture, and religion. It's about well being together.

The Chinese have celebrated the harvest during the autumn full moon since the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BCE). Morris Berkowitz, who studied the Hakka people during the 1960s, theorizes that the harvest celebration originally began with worshiping Mountain Gods after the harvest was completed. For the Baiyue peoples, the harvest time commemorated the dragon who brought rain for the crops. The celebration as a festival only started to gain popularity during the early Tang dynasty (618–907 CE). One legend explains that Emperor Xuanzong of Tang started to hold formal celebrations in his palace after having explored the Moon-Palace. The term mid-autumn (中秋) first appeared in Rites of Zhou, a written collection of rituals of the Western Zhou dynasty (1046–771 BCE).