Separation, Reunion, and the Traditions of China’s Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn comes at an opportune time; having toiled through summer and autumn, farmers now celebrate the fruits of their labor under the bright, full moon.
Separation, Reunion, and the Traditions of China’s Mid-Autumn Festival
Panorama of “Along the River During Qingming Festival,” an 18th-century remake of the 12th-century original by Zhang Zeduan. Wikimedia Commons
Updated:

The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of China’s most ancient and popular traditions, best-known as a time for families and friends to get together and feast on mooncakes while they remember the legend of the lunar goddess Chang'e. This year, it will come on Sept. 27.

Called “Zhongqiu” in Chinese, the festival has its first recorded origins in the 3,000-year-old rituals of the early Zhou Dynasty (1046–771 B.C.). It falls on the 15th day of the eighth month in China’s traditional calendar, which combines 13 lunar months with 24 “jieqi,” usually rendered in English as “solar terms.”

Zhongqiu is a joyous occasion that celebrates the solar term of the autumnal equinox, when farmers traditionally collected their hard-earned summer harvests. On a more spiritual level, the full moon that often appears on this day is regarded as a symbol of completion, so the Mid-Autumn Festival is the day of union for families and lovers, especially those long-separated.

Cycles of the Moon and Sun

Because the Chinese calendar combines both lunar months and solar terms, it is called a lunisolar calendar. The names of the 24 solar terms, six per season, each correspond to a change in weather important for pastoral life around the Yellow River Valley, China’s cradle of civilization.

Chang'e rises up to Heaven as a Goddess after drinking the elixir of immortality. (Tao Yin/The Epoch Times)
Chang'e rises up to Heaven as a Goddess after drinking the elixir of immortality. Tao Yin/The Epoch Times