GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Mid-Autumn Festival is one of East and Southeast Asia's largest holidays. From China to Singapore and Korea to Vietnam, the holiday is celebrated in a diverse set of ways. Many in West Michigan also take part in the yearly festivities.
The holiday's origins involve celebrating a successful harvest and showing thanks to the moon. The date for the celebration was strategically chosen, as the holiday takes place on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, which is a full moon.
Mid-Autumn Festival goes by several different names across regions, such as Zhong Qiu Jie in China, Tsukimi in Japan, Chuseok in Korea, and Tet Trung Thu in Vietnam.
Traditions vary across cultures, some being family dinners, heartfelt ancestral rites ceremonies, moon viewings and folk singing and dancing.
"Fall Equinox usually falls on Mid-Autumn Fest, and so that usually is a time for like a family reunion, we all get together, eat a lot of food. Mooncakes are a huge part of that celebration," said Uyen Nguyen, a baker in Grand Rapids.
Mooncakes are round wheat flour cakes with many sweet fillings and are a traditional part of Chinese and Vietnamese celebrations.
"There's a lot of different types of mooncakes you know, flavors ranging from red bean, lotus paste, mixed nuts, matcha green tea," said Hung Le, operations manager for Kim Nhung Superstore in Grand Rapids.
Le's store has been selling boxes of mooncakes as community members prepare for their family celebrations. He said the mooncakes are meant to represent unity, family and friends.
"Family and friends to come together to cook the mooncakes, and basically just to give thanks to the moon for setting up the harvest year, as we have a long winter, we want to make sure that we have a prosperous new season coming up, " Le explained.
Nguyen grew up eating mooncakes and made some for her bakery last year, which she said sold out within 15 minutes. This year, she made hundreds of mooncakes featuring her own special twist for her brand, Mon Petit Momo.
"(These mooncakes) are kind of like mochi, so they're called 'Snowskin Mooncakes.' They're more of a mochi texture, and then the inside has like, different sort of fillings," Nguyen said.
While the mooncakes are a beloved part of the celebration, the festivities all come down to enjoying the company of family.
"We usually split the mooncakes and just kind of like talk about just life or, you know, just being together is, you know, the whole part of it," Ngueyn said.
Some families enjoy simply looking at the moon while in each others' company.
"It's more of a celebration of family getting together. They make food to give offerings to the moon and, you know, some families, they look at the moon because it's at its brightest of the year," said Le.
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