Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival also known as Harvest, Moon or Lantern Festival, is the second most well known Chinese holidays after Chinese New Year with an ancientness of over 3000 years. The date of it is on the 15th moon day of 8th Chinese lunar month.

This is a day to worship the moon god. According to folk legend, this day is also the birthday of the earth god. This festival signals that the year's hard work in the fields will soon come to an end, with only the harvest left to attend to. People use this opportunity to express their gratitude to heaven (represented by the moon) and earth (symbolized by the earth god) for the blessings they have enjoyed over the past year. (more legends behind this tradition can be found here)

The Chinese believe in praying to the moon god for protection, family unity, and good fortune. The round "Moon Cakes" eaten on this festival are symbol of family unity and closeness. Pomelos are a chinese grapefruit eaten as well. Moon is at its roundest and brightest on this day.

This festival is also celebrated in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonasia, India, Vietnam and Korea.

Here you can see the photo slide show of this year's event taken at Singapore Chinese Garden on 22nd of Sep.