The Mid-Autumn Festival is an occasion for Chinese people to come together with family and to seek blessings under the full moon, China.org.cn said in a report.
According to the report, imperial rituals of moon worship merged over thousands of years with ordinary people's romantic imaginings of the moon and the stars, and from that mixture came folk customs and a warmth that has come to be associated with the festival in China.
Autumn is the harvest season, and the moon is full and round on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. For Chinese people, the report notes, a full moon represents the whole family being together.
The report lists enjoying jasmine flowers, marking the harvest and a large family dinner among the customs, all of which reflect one simple wish for peace and togetherness. The festival has kept changing, the report says, but the longing for reunion and the love of family has not faded.