Happy Mid-Autumn Festival !

May the Mid-Autumn Festival bring along with good fortune and a harvest of smiles for you and family.

The festival has a long history. In ancient China， emperors followed the rite of offering sacrifices to the sun in spring and to the moon in autumn. Historical books of the Zhou Dynasty had had the word “Mid-Autumn”. Later aristocrats and literary figures helped expand the ceremony to common people. They enjoyed the full， bright moon on that day， worshipped it and expressed their thoughts and feelings under it. By the Tang Dynasty (618-907)， the Mid-Autumn Festival had been fixed， which became even grander in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). In the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties， it grew to be a major festival of China.

The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month， usually in early September to early October of the Gregorian calendar with full moon at night. It is a time for family members and loved ones to congregate and enjoy the full moon – an auspicious symbol of abundance，harmony and luck. Adults will usually indulge in fragrant mooncakes of many varieties with a good cup of piping hot Chinese tea， while the little ones run around with their brightly-lit lanterns.