History,Tradition and What You Say to your Chinese friends in Mid-Autumn Festival

Mandarin Time
4 hours ago
3 min read

The Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节 Zhōngqiū Jié) falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, for 2025, it's October 6, a night associated with reunion, gratitude for the harvest, and moon-gazing.

You’ll see it across Chinese communities in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, and you’ll also find related harvest full-moon observances in Vietnam (Tết Trung Thu), Korea (Chuseok), and Japan (Tsukimi), and many others more in Asia:

The Deep-rooted History of The Mid-Autumn Festival in China and Hong Kong

Historically, the festival mixes ancient moon worship and farming rituals, becoming popular from the Tang Dynasty. The famous legend is Chang’e: she drank an elixir and flew to the moon, and her husband Hou Yi (an archer) laid out her favorite fruits and cakes—this is why we offer these today. The tale lives on in poems, lanterns and kids’ stories, adding myth to the holiday beyond snacks and photos.

Mooncakes, traditionally lotus seed or red-bean paste, often with a salted egg yolk “moon”, are shared in wedges as a wish for togetherness.

Different places put their own spin on the night. In Hong Kong, neighborhoods glow with lanterns and the famous Tai Hang Fire Dragon, a 67-meter incense-studded dragon, snakes through Tai Hang’s lanes over three nights, moving to Victoria Park late on the main evening (scheduled Oct 5–7, 2025). It’s loud, smoky, spectacular, and very local.

Check out the video to see it live:

In Taiwan, a now-iconic twist is balcony and riverside barbecue with friends. The craze isn’t ancient; it surged in the 1980s after duelling barbecue-sauce TV ads made grilling the Mid-Autumn thing. Today, grills pop up in alleys and on rooftops as families trade mooncakes for skewers.

Vietnam leans into Tết Trung Thu as a children’s festival, star lanterns, lion-dance troupes, and family mooncake boxes fill streets from Hanoi to Hội An.

Singapore turns its downtown gardens into a glowing wonderland: this year’s Gardens by the Bay program lights up nightly with themed lantern sets and activities.

Meanwhile Korea’s Chuseok is a three-day homecoming that centers on ancestor rites and songpyeon (half-moon rice cakes)

and Japan’s Tsukimi is a gentler moon-viewing with pampas grass (susuki) and tsukimi dango set by the window for the moon.

How to wish Chinese friends a Happy Mid-Autumn

If you want the festival words to match the vibe, here are greetings you can say to your Chinese friends and colleagues during the festivities.

Idioms often used as greetings:

花好月圆
1. 拼音：huā hǎo yuè yuán
2. 英文翻译：Blooming flowers and full moon (symbolizing perfect harmony and happiness for the Mid-Autumn Festival)
3. Audio:

花好月圆