2027 Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, usually in September or early October, is China's second most important holiday after the Spring Festival, celebrated under the year's brightest full moon. It grew out of ancient moon-worship and harvest rites, and the legend of Chang'e, the goddess who flew to the moon, is told to children. Families reunite for dinner, share mooncakes — dense round pastries filled with lotus seed paste, red bean or salted egg yolk, whose shape stands for completeness — and admire the moon, while children carry lanterns and in the south people eat pomelo and drink osmanthus wine. It has been a public holiday since 2008, generally producing a three-day break that in some years merges with the National Day Golden Week, so trains and hotels fill early. Boxed mooncakes are the standard gift for relatives and business contacts, and shops sell them for weeks beforehand. This countdown ticks to midnight Beijing time on the Mid-Autumn Festival.