A group of Chinese wait in line to buy mooncakes at the Chinatown in San Francisco, California Wednesday afternoon. [Michelle Cen/ China Daily]

Held on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Cake Festival, is the second grandest festival after the Spring Festival in China. As the Chinese gather in the mainland to celebrate, so will the Chinese who live overseas in the US.

In San Francisco, the Chinatown Merchants Association (CMA) will present the Annual Autumn Moon Festival on September 6 in the city's Chinatown section. It will transform Chinatown into an Asian theme park with over 200 art-and-craft booths, food concessions, and street and stage entertainment, according to information from the CMA.

"Attendees can enjoy some Chinese traditional food such as bubble tea drinks, moon cakes, tea sampling, and dim sums", said Eva Lee, a representative of the CMA.

The Moon Festival showcases the community's many cultural assets, said Lee, adding that the CMA seeks to help visitors and locals alike appreciate the rich cultural heritage of Chinatown and all those who live and work in the neighborhood.

"It is important to remember Chinese traditions," said Wu Bo, a representative of United for a Better society (UBC), a local Chinese overseas organization based in the Silicon Valley area of California.

He told China Daily that he would eat moon cakes with his family at the Moon Festival, adding that it would be a good opportunity for family members to be together.

In Los Angeles, a Mid-Autumn Festival promotion will be hosted for Chinese students at the University of Southern California (USC) and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to celebrate the festival.

In Houston, the Houston Clear Lake Space City Professional Association will celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival at the University of Houston's Clear Lake campus on September 6 with entertainment, food and a raffle drawing. The grand prize is a 51-inch HDTV. Proceeds from the raffle will be donated to help victims of the Yunnan earthquake and Kaohsiung gas explosion.

More than 10 Houston Chinese organizations will have a big Mid-Autumn Festival at the Huang Family Hall on September 6. The program includes entertainment, dinner, Karaoke and dancing.

Eating moon cakes is one of the most popular ways for the Chinese to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, but shipping moon cakes from China is prohibited.

"Our international operations team checked with contacts at Customs and Border Protection. According to their rules, moon cakes are prohibited based on the contents of egg yolks and meat," said Darlene Casey, a communications representative of United States Postal Service.

But fortunately, the Chinese living overseas can purchase moon cakes in the US this year. Starbucks will create a variety of tastes for moon cakes this year according to the company's advertisement. At the same time, Godiva has a Mid-Autumn Festival special and they're selling chocolate moon cakes just like it did last year.