What even is the Mid-Autumn Festival?
The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Full Moon Festival, is a traditional festival celebrated in East and Southeast Asian countries and their cultures. The names of the holiday and the traditions are all different but they have the same concept of celebrating harvest.
Here are some examples of the different names the holiday is called in different countries. In China it’s called (Zhong qiu jie), Japan (Tsukimi), Korea (Chuseok), and Vietnam (Tết Trung Thu). The dates that the festival will take this year are from Sept. 29-Oct. 6.
How is the Mid-Autumn festival similar and different from Thanksgiving?
Like Thanksgiving, the Mid-Autumn festival Moon involves family reunions, harvests, and expressions of gratitude. The Mid-Autumn festival is different from Thanksgiving because they have different celebrations. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, worshiping the moon is very significant. This makes the Mid-Autumn festival different from Thanksgiving.
What is the celebration of the Mid-Autumn festival like?
The celebrations of the Mid-Autumn festival are different from one another because of different cultures as mentioned. Here are some different ways the countries celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival.
In China, families and friends reunite and spend time together, giving scholarly and symbolic items such as tea, books, and mooncakes. They also celebrate by gazing at the moon and worshiping the moon. It is also tradition to give offerings and thanks to the gods, and to have a grand feast with the family. People in China also celebrate it by making lanterns for this particular festival.
My grandmother, who is from Korea, offered to share what the celebration of the Mid-Autumn festival is like in Korea.
“We celebrate it by reuniting with family and friends, making food together, and giving thanks to our ancestors with offerings.” She said,
“The girls from the town also do *ganggangsullae*. And we also make *songpyeon*.” she said,
“Families and friends would play *Yutnori*” she added.
Ganggangsullae is a Korean traditional dancing and singing game that is just for girls. Where girls would sing the song Ganggangsullae under the full moon and dance in a circle. Ganggangsullae only happens during the Mid-Autumn festival.
Songpyeon is a Korean traditional rice cake with an assortment of fillings such as red bean paste, soybean paste, chestnut paste, or a mixture of sesame seeds, honey, and sugar. They’re chewy and sweet, they are shaped like half moons intentionally, which symbolizes hope and a good future. Families and friends make this rice cake to share with others and is only made during the Mid-Autumn festival.
Yutnori is a traditional Korean board game played by two opposing players or teams tossing four tokens made by splitting wooden dowels into halves. They can be played during the Lunar New Year and the Mid-Autumn festival.
How can the Mid-Autumn Festival be celebrated here?
The Mid-Autumn festival can be celebrated in the U.S. even if the origins are from Asia. The principal of the Lexington Korean school offered to give some tips and comments on how to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in the U.S.
“The purpose of the Mid-Autumn festival is to share it with your friends and family and show gratitude towards them,” he said.
“A way that you could show gratitude would be giving out meaningful gifts and spending quality time with them.”
“You could also make food together or even celebrate this holiday together with friends whose culture celebrates this event!” he said.
The Mid-Autumn festival is pretty fun to celebrate with your friends and family, so make sure to acknowledge them with this event.
