Mid-Autumn Festival

History of Mid-Autumn Festival

Origination
"Mid-Autumn" was initially recorded in a Chinese ancient encyclopedia "Zhou Li" which was written by an official of West Zhou Dynasty. According to Chinese ancient calendar, there were four seasons in a year and there were three sections in a season. The lunar August 15th was the middle of the middle section of autumn so this day was called "Middle Autumn". 

Chinese Ancient Poems and Mid-Autumn Festival
At the very beginning, the Mid-Autumn Festival was not so popular. It was the ancient Chinese poets who made the Festival becoming more and more popular. They wrote lots of poems which are related to the moon and the festival. When reading these poems people were becoming more and more interested in the moon and the Festival. In North Song Dynasty, the royalty entitled Mid-Autumn Festival an official festival. Missing Home in the Silent Night is one of the most famous ancient poems related to the moon and the Mid-Autumn Festival:

The Poem Means:
The moonlight is shinning through the window,
And it makes me wonder if it is the frost on the ground,
Looking up to see the moon .....
Looking down I miss so much about my hometown.

Chinese Ancient National Examination and Mid-Autumn Festival
The ancient national examination was another factor which made Mid-Autumn Festival much more popular. In ancient times, lots of poverty-stricken students studied only for the national examination because if they got a high score in the examination they could become the officials and become rich at the same time. The national examination was held triennially. The time of the examination was just several days before the Mid-Autumn Festival. When the result was published the festival also came, so thousands of people celebrated for the luckier ones on the festival. They thought the full moon matched the celebration very well the festival is also called Full Moon Festival.