How The Ancients Celebrated The Fall Equinox

Publish date: 2024-05-03

The Chinese still celebrate Zhongqiu Jie, the mid-autumn festival also known as the Moon Festival. This has been a thing at least since the Zhou Dynasty (1000 B.C. or so), when people would burn incense and leave food offerings, especially moon cakes and watermelon. By the 14th century, the festival had evolved to include sky lanterns and a fire dragon performance, and today it's one of China's major festivals (via the State Council of the People's Republic of China).

According to the archivists at Gale International, in antiquity, Zhongqiu Jie was probably a simple harvest festival, but at some point it became connected to the story of Chang'e, a woman who drank an elixir of life, became immortal, and moved to the moon. Today, people eat moon cakes in honor of Chang'e, who is believed to give blessings of good fortune as long as she gets some decent food offerings (via ThoughtCo). Another legend says that the Mongolian rule of China (around 1200 to 1300 A.D.) ended when rebels put marching orders into Moon Festival mooncakes, thus compelling everyone at the party to attack and overthrow the occupiers.

Zhongqiu Jie is celebrated in China and Vietnam on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar, which coincides with the full moon. According to Britannica, the Koreans have their own version of the moon festival called Chuseok, when people travel to their ancestral homes to eat sweets, play games, and honor their ancestors.

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