Have a Mooncake: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival
In ancient China, emperors worshiped the harvest moon. They would offer sacrifices to the moon goddess in hopes that it would bring a plentiful harvest. As time went on, worship of the moon goddess expanded, becoming large parties thrown by emperors, state officials, and wealthy merchants. These parties featured dancers, musicians, and drinks. Eventually, even common people would gather to celebrate, albeit less lavishly.
The 15th day of the 8th lunar month, as we now recognize as the “Mid-Autumn Festival” was officially designated during the Northern Song Dynasty. The Mid-Autumn Festival’s colloquial designation, the Mooncake Festival, comes from the introduction of Mooncakes during the Yuan Dynasty. Popularity of the Mid-Autumn Festival grew throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties to become annually celebrated by all.
From its origins during the Zhou Dynasty, its expansion during the Tang and Song Dynasties, mooncakes during the Yuan Dynasty, popularization during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and finally its designation as an official public holiday in 2008, the Mid-Autumn Festival has become an important and popular celebration on the Chinese calendar.
The customary celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival (or Mooncake Festival, as it is often referred to) is a time for people to gather, travel home, cook for family and friends, and marvel at the moon. Today, people across many countries celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in their own ways, combining Chinese tradition with new traditions.
As an adoptee-centered organization, we recognize the unique blending of cultures that color the many ways in which adoptees, their families, and their friends, celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. We have compiled and highlighted some quotes describing the ways our community celebrates below. Read on for ways that you can celebrate, too!
Eating and making delicious food
“I’m hoping to get some mooncakes to eat!”
- Jenna
“Hot Pot”
- @klyee13
“Festivities have already started for me! Since my sister is in college, I cooked a few days early and sent a large delivery of food with my parents to deliver to her. I made shrimp fried rice, cucumber salad, dumplings, and three kinds of mooncakes. My personal favorite, lotus seed; new for me, black sesame; and because she doesn’t like traditional flavors of mooncakes, matcha brownie (the truest example of crossing old tradition and new). There was enough food to last her from Saturday until the festival on Tuesday! And because I won’t be home for dinner on the night of the festival, I cooked a couple of days early for my family. We had white rice (of course), stir fry bok choy, Dan San Xian (stir fry potato, eggplant, and bell pepper), cucumber salad, pork, mushroom soup, and dumplings, which I proudly taught my mom how to fold. And of course, we finished our meal with mooncakes. Someday, I would like to celebrate with a huge gathering of many of my friends and family and cook together. And then have our meal together. This feels like a big time of celebration to me, and I would like others to truly celebrate it with me.”
- KC
Teaching and learning about the festival
“Hello everyone!! Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! My name is Anna and I am a Chinese adoptee from Hubei Province, China. I am currently in my last semester of college, majoring in Childhood Inclusive Education. I am a student teacher and so, for this year’s mid-autumn festival, I will be celebrating by reading a children’s story called Mooncakes by Loretta Seto, and making a craft with the students in my placement school’s classroom. I am so excited to share a little bit about the mid-autumn festival with the children and see the crafts they will make. I have included a photo of the craft I will be making with them. They will get to choose a Chinese lantern, mooncake, bunny, and teapot to decorate and then, they will write and tape a fun message in it like is pictured in the photo. I am looking forward to this activity with the kiddos and celebrating the mid-autumn festival! Blessings!”
- Anna
Finding time to rest
“It has become our tradition to watch Over the Moon on Netflilx!”
- Erin
“I watch Over the Moon on Netflix!”
- Aiden
“Relaxing”
- Ming F.
Celebrating all over the world
“I shall be celebrating in 北京 中国 [Beijing, China].”
- Lindsay
“Mid-Autumn Festival, or Moon Festival as it is also called, has always been an elusive holiday for me. The holiday’s seemingly self-explanatory names belie my ignorance about when the holiday is actually celebrated (when is Mid-Autumn, exactly?) and what the holiday actually celebrates (what does it mean to celebrate the moon?). This conundrum results not least from transnational, transracial adoption. Having been taken from China and forcibly displaced to the United States, I – perhaps like others reading – was raised in a community that never celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival. I learned most about the holiday through the 2020 Netflix original movie, Over the Moon; Fei Fei and Bungee guided me through the legend of Chang’e, Houyi, and Jade Rabbit.
In light of my relative lack of knowledge about and experience with the holiday, I found it incredibly powerful to spend Mid-Autumn Festival in China. In the lead up to the festival, a good friend treated me to moon cakes at a local Shanghainese bakery. That small gesture held so much meaning: someone recognized this holiday as part of my heritage, even if I barely remember it myself sometimes. A few days later, I had the pleasure of eating mooncakes and drinking tea with beloved Singaporean Chinese friends, fellow members of the Chinese diaspora, who made me feel a bit less alone celebrating a holiday I otherwise “should” know. (Though, of course, how would I know!) Later at night, I met up with East Asian adoptee friends, and together we marveled at the moon from Shanghai’s Qibao water town, surprisingly quite well located to the metro yet secluded enough to feel like the moon had come out just to see us. We enjoyed a spread of moon cakes and, for once, I did not feel so left out on Moon Festival.”
- Xue Zhang
Gathering with friends and family
“Will have a meal with family outdoors and make lamps and of course [mooncakes]. We are preparing a roast duck.”
- @yoliplanting
“I’m Chinese but celebrating Chuseok [the Korean mid-autumn harvest festival] this year [because] most of my Asian friends are Korean.”
- @1000_words_from_adoptees
“We have invited friends over and are teaching them to make mooncakes. These are the ones we made last year using the Pecan Pie Mooncakes recipe from Woks of Life. We will gather this year with friends to teach them how to make mooncakes and will then eat them with tea sent to us by our older daughter’s family in Shaanxi province. We will share the history of the holiday with our friends and light lanterns at the end of the evening.”
- Martha
Thank you to everyone who shared with us the ways that you celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival! As an adoptee-centered organization, we recognize the unique blending of cultures that give way to a marrying of many celebratory traditions, old and new. We wish all a happy and full Mid-Autumn Festival, and happy Mooncake eating!
We invite you to share with us here, by commenting below, and on social media @nanchangproject how you celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Our blog stories come from readers like you!
We invite you to send us your own story to share. We accept submissions from anyone whose life may have been touched by Chinese international adoption including, but not limited to: adoptees, adoptive families, birth families, friends, searchers.
Details in the link below!