Shandong Culture

Traditions you may not know about Mid-Autumn Festival in China

By Zhou Bing (chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2018-09-21

Traditions you may not know about Mid-Autumn Festival in China

People make colorful lanterns to decorate the beautiful night during Mid-Autumn Festival. [Photo/VCG]

3. Making colorful lanterns

On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the sky is clear as water, and the moon is full and bright like a mirror. People usually make colorful lanterns to decorate the beautiful night.

They make the lanterns in different shapes to be hung on trees or houses, or floated on rivers. Park personnel will hang up colorful lanterns, which provide a beautiful scene at night.

They also make Kongming lanterns, which can fly because the burning candles heat the air in the lantern. Children write good wishes on the lanterns and let them fly up into the sky.

Traditions you may not know about Mid-Autumn Festival in China
People express the joy of harvest in autumn by burning small pagodas. [Photo/VCG]
4. Burning pagodas

In some places, burning pagodas during the Mid-Autumn Festival is another tradition.

When night falls, people gather together in an empty place, and pick up broken bricks and tiles to pile up several pagodas, large and small. The pagodas are hollow and are stuffed with firewood.

When all the pagodas are built up, someone will shout, "Ignite the fire!" Then, the firewood in the pagodas is lit, and the red flames rise and sparks explode, through which people express the joy of harvest in autumn.

5. Playing clay rabbit

The clay rabbit is a traditional handicraft in Beijing at Mid-Autumn Festival. Based on an image of of the Jade Rabbit from the story of Chang'e in the Moon Palace, a clay rabbit is personalized and made in an artistic form.

Some people imitate opera characters and carve the rabbit in a stylized way, such as a warrior with a golden helmet and armor, riding lions, elephants and other beasts of prey, or some riding peacocks, cranes and other birds.

The rabbit figure once was an offering to worship the moon, but later, it became a popular children's toy.