Info on Mooncake Festival
The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, is the second largest festival in China after the Chinese New Year, with a 3,000-year history of rulers worshipping the moon for abundant harvests.
The event occurs on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month according to the Chinese lunisolar calendar, which corresponds to mid-September to early October according to the Gregorian calendar. According to the Chinese, on this day, which also happens to be harvest time in the midst of Autumn, the moon is at its brightest and largest.
Lanterns are carried and displayed in a variety of sizes and shapes as symbolic beacons of prosperity and good fortune. Mooncakes, a delectable pastry filled with sweet bean or lotus seed paste, are customarily served at this event.
Following a successful rice and wheat harvest, the celebration served as an opportunity to pay tribute to the moon with food offerings. The tradition of eating mooncakes and gazing at the moon, a symbol of peace and unity, continues today at outdoor gatherings of friends and families. It is customary for government offices, banks, and schools to close for an additional day during the year of a solar eclipse in order to enjoy the extended celestial celebration.
The holiday season is incomplete without the practise of carrying beautifully coloured lanterns. The availability of mass-produced plastic lanterns featuring internationally recognisable characters such as Pikachu from Pokémon, Disney characters, Naruto, Angry Birds, Ben 10, Doraemon, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Hello Kitty has resulted in a decline in handcrafted lantern production in recent years.
Mooncake making and sharing is a long-standing tradition at the festival. Mooncakes are another important component of the Mid-Autumn Festival. A circular shape represents completion and reunion in Chinese tradition. Sharing and eating round mooncakes with family members throughout the festival week symbolises the completeness and unity of families.
Mooncakes are traditionally produced in several parts of China on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Mooncakes were split into pieces and distributed to family members by the senior household member, symbolising a family reunion. In modern times, the traditional practise of making mooncakes at home has given way to the more popular practise of giving mooncakes to family members, but the concept of familial togetherness has remained constant.
Despite the fact that the majority of mooncakes only have a few centimetres in diameter, imperial chefs crushed designs of Chang'e, cassia trees, and the Moon-Palace into the surface of mooncakes. The number thirteen represents the thirteen months of a full lunar year in China, and one tradition involves stacking thirteen mooncakes on top of one another to resemble a pagoda. The spectacle of massive mooncake production is still performed in contemporary China.

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