Mandarin For Mid-autumn Festival

The Mid-autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese Lunar Year (农历 nóng lì), which is usually around late September or early October in the solar calendar, when the moon is supposedly at its fullest and roundest.

The Mid-autumn Festival is one of the two most important holidays for farmers who celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date. Traditionally, on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomelos (文旦 wén dàn 柚子 yòu zi) together.

Mooncakes (月饼yuè bǐng) are Chinese pastry traditionally eaten during the Mid-autumn Festival. Typical mooncakes are round or rectangular pastries, measuring about 10 cm in diameter and 4-5 cm thick. A thick filling made from regular Chinese paste is surrounded by a relatively thin (2-3 mm) crust and may contain yolks from salted duck eggs (咸蛋黄 xián dàn huáng). Mooncakes are rich, heavy, and dense compared with most Western cakes and pastries. They are usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by Chinese tea to balance the flavour.

Traditional mooncakes have an imprint on top consisting of the Chinese characters for "longevity" or "harmony" as well as the name of the bakery and filling in the moon cake. Imprints of a moon, a woman on the moon Chang’e (嫦娥  cháng é), flowers, vines, or a rabbit (玉兔 yù tù) may surround the characters for decorations.

Different varieties of fillings can be found in traditional mooncakes according to the region's culture:

Lotus seed paste (莲蓉  lián róng): Considered to be both original and luxurious mooncake filling, lotus paste filling is found in all types of mooncakes. Due to the high price of lotus paste, white kidney bean paste is sometimes used as a filling.

Red bean paste (豆沙 dòu shā): A number of pastes are common fillings found in Chinese desserts. Although red bean paste, made from azuki beans, is the most common worldwide, there are regional and original preferences for bean paste made from Mung bean as well as black bean known throughout history.

Jujube (Chinese dates) paste (枣泥  zǎo ní): A sweet paste made from the ripe fruits of the jujube plant. The paste is dark red in colour, a little fruity/smoky in flavour and slightly sour in taste. Depending on the quality of the paste, jujube paste may be confused with red bean paste.

Five kernel (五仁 wǔ rén): A filling consisting of 5 types of nuts and seeds, coarsely chopped and held together with maltose syrup. Commonly-used nuts and seeds include walnuts, pumpkin seeds, watermelon seeds, peanuts, sesame, or almonds. In addition, the mixture will usually contain candied winter melon, jinhua ham, or pieces of rock sugar as additional flavour.

Traditionally, thirteen moon cakes were piled in a pyramid to symbolize the thirteen moons of a "complete year," that is, twelve moons plus one intercalary moon (闰月 rùn yuè).