By: Jhoemz Vercide

Today is a big day for East Asian communities with families gathering for dinner, lighting lanterns and eating mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival. 

In 2019, the event falls on September 13, it is said to be the second grandest festival in China after the Chinese New Year. It takes its name from the fact that it is always celebrated in the middle of the autumn season.

The day is also known as the Moon Festival, as at that time of the year the moon is at its roundest and brightest, as for the Chinese, the round shape symbolizes family unity, love, harmony, and happy life, and they celebrate this by eating the delicious mooncake.

The Festival Star: Mooncake

One of the biggest stars of the Mid-Autumn Festival is the mooncake -- people sacrifice moon cakes to the moon as an offering and eat them for celebration. Moon cakes come in various flavors according to the region.

The moon cakes are round, symbolizing the reunion of a family, so it is easy to understand how the eating of moon cakes under the round moon can evoke longing for distant relatives and friends. Nowadays, people present moon cakes to relatives and friends to demonstrate that they wish them a long and happy life.

The most common kind of mooncake is made of lotus seed paste, salted egg yolk, and lard -- which explains why a palm-sized cake can contain about 1,000 calories.

Moon worship has always been an important part of Chinese culture, and there are a number of different myths surrounding the festival's origin. 

Beyond mooncakes and food, let us not forget the true meaning of the festival as an integral part of the world’s culture.