I have fond memories of celebrating Mid Autumn Festival with my cousins at my grandparents’ house in Taiwan.
Running around their house with my paper lantern, lighting sparklers on the front porch are some of the memories I want to share with my kids.
Below are some easy ways to celebrate as a family.
Background on the Holiday 中秋節的來源
I discovered that I needed a refresher on the holiday. It’s been a long time since I celebrated the holiday with full knowledge of what it’s all about.
If you’re like me and need a refresher or just don’t know much about Mid Autumn Festival, Time wrote a great article on it, you can read it here.
A great way to learn about the holiday with your kids is through one of the kid friendly videos below.
Videos on The Story Behind Mid Autumn Festival for Kids
Puppet performance of the origin of Mid Autumn Festival with English and traditional Chinese subtitles with zhuyin. I liked how the video was short and to the point not to mention adorable.
This is a fun and silly live action reenactment of the story behind Mid Autumn Festival from one of the popular kid channels in Taiwan.
Netflix also has a wonderful movie coming out for this year’s Mid Autumn Festival called Over the Moon! Audio available in Mandarin Chinese! We’re looking forward to watching this as a family.
Mid Autumn Festival Chinese Characters
I created a simple worksheet with Chinese characters that are related to this celebration to help me talk about the holiday with my daughter and the little girl I’m tutoring. Click on the link below to download:
Play Dough Moon Cakes 黏土月餅
I purchased this mold from Amazon and used some store bought play dough to make moon cakes.
For older kids, you can have them add play dough egg yoke and red bean paste that are usually found in these moon cakes. But I just went for a the simple straight forward one colored moon cakes.
These are fairly easy and requires low prep. My three year old did need some assistance from me.
Lanterns 燈籠
I have such fond memories of running around my grandparents’ house with my cousins holding our paper lanterns. So of course I had to include this part of the celebration for my daughter.
Here’s a lantern you can make out of a Kleenex box
Here are some DIY videos on three other variations of lanterns you can make with your littles ranging from simple to more elaborate and complex ones.
Pomelo Hats 柚子帽
Another fun memory I have of 中秋節 is eating sweet pomelos and the adults making a hat out of the rind.
The word for pomelo in Chinese is 柚子 (yòu zi) which is a homophone for “prayer for son.”
So that’s why people eat this fruit during this holiday, as a sign for prayer for protection over the children in the family.
Another legend is that wearing this hat makes it easier for the Moon goddess 嫦娥 (cháng’é) to see the children from the moon and as a result give her blessings to them.
If there are no pomelos at your local Asian grocery store, you can also use a grapefruit.
How People Really Celebrate in Taiwan
When we were living in Taiwan, adults would get together and barbecue all sorts of meat and fresh seafood outside.
This is actually unique to Taiwan.
How About you?
How do you celebrate it? What are some fond memories you have of the holiday? Please share below.
If you do the activities I shared above, please tag me @spotofsunshinechinese. I would love to see what fun things you do with your kiddos.
More Mid Autumn Festival Fun
For some more fun Mid Autumn Festival activities, check out the following posts:
- How to Celebrate the Mid Autumn Festival from Chinese American Family
- Mid Autumn Festival Activities from Mama Baby Mandarin
- Mooncakes and More! Celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival! from Little Passports
- Global Ed:Chinese Mid Autumn Moon Festival free Mid Autumn Festival printables from Miss Panda
- Chocolate Snowskin Mooncakes recipe from Fortune Cookie Mom
More Goodies
For some more fun activities and read up on how I’m teaching my daughter Chinese, check out the following posts:
- How Chinese Became Our Daughter’s Dominate Language at Age 2
- Me and My Daughter’s Language Adventure
- Numbers in Chinese: Activity for Toddlers
Don’t Do It Alone!
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