MUZI MUZIChinese Matrix

Mid-Autumn Festival

The moon is brightest at mid-autumn

Introduction

The full moon of the eighth month: an autumn festival of moon viewing and reunion

The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, the middle of autumn, when the moon is at its fullest. The term zhongqiu appears in the Zhouli and ancient rulers made autumn offerings to the moon, but the festival of moon viewing took shape around the Tang, whose poets left many pieces on enjoying the moon on the fifteenth night of the eighth month. The Northern Song Dongjing menghua lu describes wealthy households decorating terraces and commoners vying for seats in wine houses to watch the moon, and from the Ming and Qing the stress fell on family reunion. Its customs are moon viewing, moon offerings, mooncakes and lanterns, and legends such as Chang'e flying to the moon carry its themes of reunion and longing.

Timeline

Tang dynasty to present
800 · OriginIn the Tang zhongqiu came to mean the moon-viewing festival of the fifteenth of the eighth month; Liu Yuxi and others wrote mid-autumn moon poems, and Ouyang Zhan's preface on enjoying the moon argued that autumn and the fifteenth night were best.1147 · EvolutionThe Dongjing menghua lu records that in Kaifeng on mid-autumn night wealthy families decorated their terraces and commoners vied for wine-house seats to watch the moon, with night markets until dawn.2006 · ImpactIn 2006 the Mid-Autumn Festival entered the first national intangible heritage batch (X-5).2008 · ImpactFrom 2008 the Mid-Autumn Festival became a statutory public holiday in mainland China.
  1. 800OriginIn the Tang zhongqiu came to mean the moon-viewing festival of the fifteenth of the eighth month; Liu Yuxi and others wrote mid-autumn moon poems, and Ouyang Zhan's preface on enjoying the moon argued that autumn and the fifteenth night were best.Literature › Preface to Poems on Enjoying the Moon
  2. 1147EvolutionThe Dongjing menghua lu records that in Kaifeng on mid-autumn night wealthy families decorated their terraces and commoners vied for wine-house seats to watch the moon, with night markets until dawn.Literature › Record of a Dream of Splendour in the Eastern Capital
  3. 2006ImpactIn 2006 the Mid-Autumn Festival entered the first national intangible heritage batch (X-5).
  4. 2008ImpactFrom 2008 the Mid-Autumn Festival became a statutory public holiday in mainland China.

Heritage Listings

  1. 2006National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage1st batch · X-5 Mid-Autumn Festival · no. 453 · nominated by the Ministry of Culture
  2. 2008National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage, extension itemsX-5 Mid-Autumn Festival: Xiamen · Fujian · Foshan · Guangdong