Lunar August 15th is China’s traditional Mid-Autumn Festival. It is called Mid-Autumn, because it is exactly in the middle of autumn. On this night, the moon is the fullest and brightest of the year, so it is also called “Yuexi” or “Bayuejie”. When people look at the round moon on the August 15th, they look forward to family reunion. People who are far away from their home also express homesickness to their families. So Mid-Autumn Festival also is called “Union Festival”.

Enjoying and worshiping the full moon is traditional custom in the Mid-Autumn Festival. Chinese people put mooncake, watermelons, apples, dates, grapes, other offerings on a table. Under the moonlight and burning red candle, whole family will worship the moon in turn.

Eating mooncake also is important custom in the Mid-Autumn Festival. There are many different flavors of mooncake in China. But all are delicious. The shape of mooncake is round as the moon on the Mid-Autumn night. The round shape symbolizes reunion. So the Mid-Autumn Festival is reunion festival.