When the moon fills the East: A handbook to China's Mid-Autumn Festival Editor's note: Mid-Autumn Festival is almost here. To people in China, the moon is not just a rock in the night sky. It stands for reunion, longing, and a distinctly Chinese kind of romance. Everyone in China knows the legend of Chang'e flying to the moon and the Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, pounding medicine, but far fewer visitors know that Chang'e and Yutu are also the names of spacecraft. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​What ancient China imagined about the full moon is now flying through space. Read this handbook and you will know enough for the special night: how to eat a mooncake, how to watch the moon, and where those names in orbit came from. If you only learn one line, learn this: 中秋快乐 — Zhōngqiū kuàilè — Happy Mid-Autumn Festival. Reunion under the moon Mid-Autumn falls on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese lunisolar calendar, right in the middle of autumn. It is also called the Reunion Festival, and in importance it comes second only to Spring Festival. For centuries, the full moon has meant a family in one place. That has not changed. The classic scene is simple: a round table, a box of mooncakes, a few plates of fruit — often pomelo — and sometimes lanterns. The mooncake is cut according to the number of people at the table, one piece each. If someone did not make it home, that piece is set aside until they return. Only then is the circle complete. Customs change from city to city. In Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, there is Bo Bing, a dice game once played to comfort homesick soldiers and now listed as a national intangible cultural heritage. In Beijing, try a park or the old city moat, and look for Tu'er Ye, or Lord Rabbit, the clay rabbit figurines. In Shanghai, a park or the riverfront will do; Cantonese, Suzhou-style, and new-school mooncakes are easy to find. In Hong Kong, people cut mooncakes in a teahouse and walk with lanterns. Read full: en.people.cn/n3/2026/0924/c9…