Celebrating the Mid-Autum Festival at Ipswich School

On 21st September, Ipswich School were pleased to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, which opens the prelude of autumn. 

Year 11 student Wei Heng has shared some information and traditions about the Festival below.

What is the Mid-Autumn Festival?

Mid-Autumn Festival(Chinese:中秋节) also known as Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, is one of the most important traditional festivals in China, with a history of more than 3000 years.

What is the meaning and symbolism of the Mid-Autumn Festival?

Old stories said that the Mid-Autumn Festival is the day when the moon comes closest to the Earth and is also the day which has the roundest moon. The full moon symbolizes reunion. So people usually get together with their families on this day. The people who can not go home will also look at the round moon and think about their family and what they are doing.

Why is the Mid-Autumn Festival at the beginning of the autumn?

The Mid-Autumn Festival uses the ancient type of calendar to determine the day, which is not as accurate as the modern one. So, naturally there will be some deviations on the days.

How do we celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival?

In the past, the Mid-Autumn Festival had many customs, such as appreciating the moon, watching the tide, lighting lanterns, eating mooncakes and drinking osmanthus flower wine.

But with the pace of people’s life getting faster and faster, only mooncakes remain as a tradition of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

What are mooncakes?

Mooncakes have different flavors and shapes in different places. There are Guangdong style Beijing style, Jiangsu style and so on, and can be roughly divided into north and south. In the north they are almost like crispy meat pies, with pork beef or mushroom as fillings. But very few people actually eat them, they taste like zombie dumpings in my memory!

Most people like the southern style, where the mooncakes are more like pies with sweet fillings, such as sweet bean paste, sweet lotus seed paste, jam and nuts. Nowadays, even ice cream can be used as a mooncake filling.

I wish you a happy Mid-Autumn Festival!