Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the full moon of the eighth lunar month, when the moon is traditionally said to be at its brightest and roundest. The round moon stands for family reunion, so people travel home, share a meal and go outside to admire the moon together. The festival food is the mooncake, a round pastry usually filled with lotus-seed or bean paste, sometimes with a salted egg yolk inside; styles differ by region, from glossy Cantonese cakes to flaky Suzhou-style ones, and boxes of them are given as gifts. Legend says the beauty Chang’e swallowed an elixir of immortality and floated up to the moon, where she still lives with a jade rabbit. The night has inspired many poems, including Su Dongpo’s famous verse written at Mid-Autumn in 1076. It is a public holiday, sometimes joined to the October National Day break, so expect busy trains and sights.