How to pronounce Mid-Autumn Festival

[zhōng qiū jié]

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, the Autumn Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival, the August Festival, the August Meeting, the Moon Chasing Festival, the Moon Playing Festival, the Moon Worshipping Festival, the Daughter's Festival, or the Festival of Reunion, is a traditional cultural festival that is popular among the many ethnic groups of China and the countries of the Hanzi Cultural Circle and is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar; the name is due to the fact that the festival falls at the half-way point of the third quarter. In some places, the Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on the sixteenth day of the eighth month. The Mid-Autumn Festival began in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, flourished in the Song Dynasty, and by the time of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it had become one of the major Chinese festivals on a par with the Spring Festival. Influenced by Chinese culture, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also a traditional festival in some East and Southeast Asian countries, especially for local Chinese. Since 2008, the Mid-Autumn Festival has been listed as a national holiday. 2006