Top 6 Mid-Autumn Festival Activities
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| Top 6 Mid-Autumn Festival Activities |
1. Eat Mooncakes – the Most Popular Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival Activity
Eating mooncakes is a Chinese Moon Festival activity done by almost every Chinese. There are a variety of mooncakes across China. The stuffings can be walnuts, almonds, sesames, melon seeds, hawthorn, lotus seeds, red beans, jujubes, fruits, eggs, and beacon, etc.
Originally, mooncake was only a kind of snack food and was used to worship the moon god. Later, people gradually gave it the meaning of family reunion and regarded it as a festival food because the mooncake is round, and it is shared by the family after the worship.
See also
Traditional Mooncakes in China - 12 Types of Regional Variations
10 Best Mooncakes in China - Have you ever tried?
10 Most Popular Mooncake Flavors - Which one do you like?
2. Appreciate the Full Moon - Symbolizing Family Reunion
In Chinese culture, people associate the round full moon with the reunion of a family and appreciating the full moon has been a popular Mid-Autumn Festival activity after families getting together. Even if the family members are far from each other, they are appreciating the same moon, seeming like there is no distance between them.
3. Worship the Moon – 3,000 Years Old Tradition
The moon worship is an ancient royal ritual and an important Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival activity, to pray for the moon to bless the people. At the night of Mid-Autumn Fetisval, people place a table that faces the moon, put mooncakes and other sacrifices on the table, make wishes and offer incense to the moon. At the end of the worship, people burn the special papers to the moon. Then they share the sacrifices. The wishes they usually made are family reunion, happiness, success and beauty.
The worship ceremony is to show respect to the moon god. The weather factor is not the key. If there is no moon could be seen at the festival night, people also place a table in the direction of the moon to worship. The moon worship folk custom varies from one region to anther region, but the same point is men need not kowtow to the moon. This Chinese Moon Festival activity is also prevalent among ethnic minorities in China.
4. Mid-Autumn Reunion Dinner – a Gathering of All Family Members
At the Mid-Autumn Festival, all family members make their way to go home to have a big family feast, called Mid-Autumn reunion dinner. They talk, drink, and enjoy dishes, fruits as well as mooncakes. As they please, there is no ritual at the dinner. It is totally a delightful family gathering. See also Mid-Autumn Festival Food in China - Top 10 Dishes You Must Try
5. Drink Osmanthus Wine – a Delight of Mid-Autumn Night
The Mid-Autumn Festival is at the time when the sweet-scented osmanthus are in full bloom, so people gradually associate the osmanthus with the festival and develop some related Mid-Autumn Festival Activities, among which drinking osmanthus wine is the most popular. Osmanthus wine is made from the osmanthus and high quality rice wine, being light yellow with a distinct osmanthus fragrance. It is sweet, sour and soft, and has the unique mellow flavor similar to the grapes. It is said people who drink osmanthus wine on the festival night would enjoyed a longer life.
6. Make and Hang Festival Lanterns – Favorite Mid-Autumn Festival Activity for Kids
It is the favorite Mid-Autumn Festival activity for kids popular in Guangzhou and Hong Kong. On that day, the children use bamboo paper to make lanterns, and hang the lanterns on a high erected pole. Their parents help them to finish such activities. The children compete with each other to see whose lantern is hanging taller, and whose lantern is the most delicate.
During the festival, people in some areas of south China also set Kongming lanterns, which are large squared lanterns made with paper. The candle is burned inside the lantern, and the heat make it rise up to the sky. In addition, there are a variety of hand lanterns for children to play.
In the area of Nanning, Guangxi, there are also simple grapefruit lanterns, pumpkin lanterns and orange lanterns. The so-called grapefruit lantern is to hollow out the grapefruit, engrave a simple pattern on the peel, tie the rope, and light the candle inside. Pumpkin lanterns and orange lanterns are made in the same way. It is easy to make and very popular, some children also float the fruit lanterns into the rivers or pools for fun.
See also Why Chinese make Mid-Autumn Festival lanterns?
Further Reading
Customs on Mid-Autumn Festival
18 Popular Mid-Autumn Festival Traditions