The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional Chinese folk festival. It originated from the worship of celestial phenomena and evolved from the autumn eve of the ancient times.
Originally, the festival of “Jiyue Festival” was on the 24th solar term “autumn equinox” in the Ganzhi calendar. Later, it was adjusted to the 15th of the Xia calendar (lunar calendar).
Since ancient times, the Mid-Autumn Festival has had folk customs such as worshipping the moon, admiring the moon, eating moon cakes, playing with lanterns, admiring osmanthus, and drinking osmanthus wine, which have been passed down for a long time.
The Mid-Autumn Festival originated in ancient times and was popular in the Han Dynasty. It was finalized in the early years of the Tang Dynasty and prevailed after the Song Dynasty. The Mid-Autumn Festival is a synthesis of autumn seasonal customs, and most of the festival factors it contains have ancient origins. The Mid-Autumn Festival uses the full moon to signify the reunion of people, as a place to remember the hometown, the love of family members, and pray for a harvest and happiness, and become a rich and precious cultural heritage.
The Mid-Autumn Festival, the Spring Festival, the Ching Ming Festival, and the Dragon Boat Festival are also known as the four traditional Chinese festivals. Influenced by Chinese culture, Mid-Autumn Festival is also a traditional festival for some countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia, especially local Chinese and overseas Chinese. On May 20, 2006, the State Council included the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists. The Mid-Autumn Festival has been listed as a national legal holiday since 2008.