China Fact Tours: Celebrations and Things to Do in Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival

At the Mid-Autumn Festival, people offer sacrifices and pay homage to the moon, and taste moon cakes. In ancient times, when celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival, people set a large incense burner table in the courtyard bathed in silver moonlight, on which moon cakes, a water melon cut in the shape of a lotus flower, apples, red jujubes, plums, grapes and other sacrifices were placed. Under the bright moon, a portrait of Moon Goddess was put on a table, facing the moon, and red candles were lit. Then the family members paid homage to the moon one by one, praying for family reunion and safety. The custom of worshiping the moon originated from the capital city in the Northern Song Dynasty. On the night of the festival, all the people o f the whole city, men and women, old and young, put on the adult's clothes, burned joss sticks, paid respects to the moon and expressed their wishes, praying for the blessing of Moon Goddess. Many modern activities of appreciating the moon originated from the activities of worshipping the moon in ancient times. Now, the Chinese people invite friends and relatives to hold family reunion feasts for celebration at the night of the Mid-autumn Festival. After the feasts, they sacrifice moon cakes, fruits and wine to the full moon at the open spaces. Each would make a vow to Goddess of the moon at this time, young men hope to make a beautiful girl friend, conversely, the young girls hope to make a handsome boy friend and become more beautiful; children hope they can take a first class in their study; parents hope their children have a good luck in everything. After the vows, they begin to admire the full moon, taste moon cakes, drinking, chatting even dancing under the moon. In modern China, these are very common things to be done in the Mid-autumn festival. Actually, if you travel to different areas in China you will find some different way of celebration such as: putting pomelo rinds on one's head, carrying the alight lanterns, lighting lanterns on towers, floating sky lanterns, burning incenses to the moon, planting Mid-Autumn trees, collecting dandelion leaves and distributing them evenly among family members, perform the Fire Dragon Dances...these activities are so interesting that many foreigners hope to make a China Tour during the Mid-Autumn Day to enjoy the festival with the Chinese families when they visit China .