2010 Mid Autumn Festival will be celebrated on September 22th 2010, and Beijing, as the historical and cultural city will hold various events for celebrating the festival.

Mid-Autumn Festival, Zhongqiujie in Chinese, is one of the most important traditional festival in China. The four festivals, Spring Festival, Qingming Festival and Duanwu Festival (Dragon Boat Festival) and Mid-Autumn Festival are the top 4 traditional festivals among Chinese Han people.

Usually happening on September, the celebrating date for Mid-Autumn Festival is August 15th of Chinese lunar calendar. It was a popular harvest festival and family reunion festival in ancient days. Mid-Autumn Festival can date back over 3,000 years as the moon worship day, and it was very popular in China’s Song Dynasty (the years between 960-1234).

On May 20th, 2006, Mid-Autumn Festival is listed as the first national nonmaterial cultural heritage list of China, and in 2008 Mid-Autumn Festival becomes national public holiday.

The activities for Mid-Autumn Festival China mainly include admiring the full Moon, eating moon cakes and lighting red lanterns etc. Since Mid-Autumn Festival is also family reunion day, most people will go home for the reunion dinner and enjoying the most beautiful family reunion moment.

Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhongqiu Jie) 2010 Beijing
Date: September 22th 2010 (August 15th of Chinese lunar calendar)
Activities: family reunion, admiring the full Moon, eating mooncake and lighting red lanterns

Mid-Autumn Festival celebration in Beijing: Lantern show in Longtanhu Park, Chaoyang park and other lake beside area and open square venues. Temple fairs will also be held at certain venues

Source : http://www.beijingimpression.com/event/Mid-Autumn-Festival-Beijing.shtml

Many lives will never be the same again this Mid Autumn Festival, as numerous churches ready for their community outreach programmes.

Some churches, like New Creation Church and Riverlife Church, are organising an event to help those going through difficulties.

This will be the third year the NCC has been holding a Mid-Autumn Celebration for the Hokkien and Mandarin speaking communities in Singapore.

Coordinated by its Chinese Ministry, the event scheduled to be held this weekend will see celebrities Kelvin Soh and Xia Hui taking the stage at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Soh and Xia will give performances and share their testimonies of faith.

Seats for the first of two sessions have already been sold out, according to the NCC website.

In 2008, the celebrations fetched a turnout of around 7,100, with 96 people deciding to become Christians.

At Riverlife Church, The Rev Oh Beng Kee, a well-known evangelist to the Chinese-speaking people, will deliver a message of perseverance and hope from his own life, especially after he met with a car accident.

The congregation is also hosting a special event in October for Mainlanders to help dispel their homesickness.

Agape Baptist Church is putting up two events during the festival. The first is a lantern festival gathering for Pek Kio residents.

The church will also conduct a series of talks based on Psalm 23 starting October.

At True Way Presbyterian Church along Stirling Road, there will be opportunities to make mooncakes, ice-breaker games, special item presentations, a special programme and lantern parade for children.

Both Agape Baptist Church and True Way Presbyterian Church will be giving out free lanterns to help residents celebrate the festival.

Some churches, like the Faith Community Baptist Church, are taking the opportunity to foster friendships and perhaps lay the ground for the forming of relationships between its single members.

FCBC is holding an event in early October for ‘like-minded’ friends and single members from 25 to 42 years of age to learn the art of appreciating Chinese tea and enjoy some ‘premium’ mooncake.

Source : http://sg.christianpost.com/dbase/society/1640//1.htm

One of the most important traditional Chinese festivals, the Mid Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, around the time of the autumn equinox. Many refer to it simply as the “Fifteenth of the Eighth Month.” As the full bright moon on that night tends to inspire people’s anticipation for a family reunion, it is also called “Festival of Reunion.”

This day is also considered a harvest festival since farmers have just finished gathering their crops and bringing in fruits from the orchards. Overwhelmed with joy when they have a bumper harvest and quite relaxed after a year of hard work, they feel it is a time for relaxation and celebration.

Food offerings — including moon cakes, apples, pears, peaches, grapes, pomegranates, watermelons, oranges, and so on — are placed on an altar set up in the courtyard. Of all these foods, mooncake and watermelons (cut into the shape of a lotus) are indispensable for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Bathing in the silver moonlight, the families will sit together and take turns to worship the moon, chatting and sharing the moon offerings.

Source : http://www.womenofchina.cn/Lifestyle/Customs/206280.jsp