The exact middle of autumn is on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar when the moon is round and the Chinese people mark their Moon (or Mid-autumn) Festival. People used to offer fancy cakes to the moon spirit on this day in ancient times. Nowadays, the round shape to Chinese symbolizes a family reunion to sit around and eat mooncakes together and appreciating the beauty of the full rounded moon. Therefore the Moon Festival is a holiday for members of a family to get together wherever it is possible. On that day sons and daughters will bring their family members back to their parents' house for a reunion. Sometimes people who have already settled overseas will come back to visit their parents on that day but they can all look up in the sky from their own homes and be reminded that they are looking at the same luminous moon.

As every Chinese holiday is accompanied by some sort of special food, the Moon Festival is no different, people eat moon cakes, a kind of cookie with fillings of sugar, fat, sesame, walnut, the yoke of preserved eggs, ham or other ingredients. In Chinese fairy tales, the fairy Chang E lived on the moon, a wood cutter named Wu Gang and Chang E jade rabbit .

In the old days, people paid respect to the fairy Chang E and her pet jade rabbit. The custom of paying homage to the fairy and rabbit is gone but the moon cakes get better every year. There are hundreds of varieties of moon cakes on sale one month before the arrival of the Moon Festival. Some moon cakes are of very high quality and very delicious. Visitors are advised not to miss it if they happen to be in China during the Moon Festival. The words of the great Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai are often recited on such evenings, even today: "I raise my head to gaze at the bright moon, and I drop my head to think of my old home." Children choose their own lanterns and parade through the streets of their village or a park with their brightly lit lanterns.

Poems about the Moon and Home
The Mid-Autumn Moon by Li Qiao
A full moon hangs high in the chilly sky,
All say it's the same everywhere, round and bright.
But how can one be sure thousands of miles away
Wind and perhaps rain may not be marring the night?

The Yo-Mei Mountain Moon by Li Bai
The autumn moon is half round above the Yo-mei Mountain;
The pale light falls in and flows with the water of the Ping-chiang River.
Tonight I leave Ching-chi of limpid stream for the three Canyons.
And glide down past Yu-chow, thinking of you whom I cannot see.