The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth month on the Chinese lunar calendar. It is a traditional festival for watching and admiring the moon, expressing longing for loved ones and praying for harvests.

The Mid-Autumn Festival could date back to people's initial worship of celestial bodies like the moon, and it derived from the custom of worshiping the moon at the autumn equinox (Sept. 22 or 23) in prehistory times. The word Zhongqiu, which literally means "mid-autumn," was already used in the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220).

Historical records show that moon-watching has become an activity for the festival in the Jin Dynasty (265-420). In the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the custom prevailed, and people connected the festival with legends like Chang'e flying to the moon, Wu Gang cutting down the osmanthus tree and the jade rabbit mashing herbs. Many poets also left famous lines about the moon. In the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), the fifteenth day of the eighth month on the Chinese lunar calendar was officially set as the Mid-Au- tumn Festival, and typical food for the festival began to appear. In Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1616-1911) dynasties, people would place round-shaped fruits and pastries as offerings on the Mid-Autumn Day to pay tribute to the moon.

Nowadays, those rituals have gradually turned into grand and various folk activities where people admire the moon and have fun. Eating mooncakes has also become an indispensable part of the festival, as the mooncakes represent family gathering and happiness.

In addition, there are customs like admiring osmanthus flowers, drinking osmanthus flower wine, eating crabs and playing tu'er Ye (figurines of the Rabbit God). The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated by all Chinese in the world. Influenced by Chinese culture, some countries in East and Southeast Asia also celebrate the festival.