What exactly is with Chuseok and mid-autumn festival? I meant what exactly is different about the two? In all honesty I would love to say “spelling”, because apart from the names the traditional and cultural aspects are all pretty similar.

Korea Chuseok

Chuseok is a major harvest festival and a three-day holiday in Korea celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. Traditionally it celebrates bountiful harvest through feasting of traditional foods like the Songpyeon (송편), which is a rice cake wrapped with some fillings such as sesame seeds, black beans, mung beans etc. These snacks are often paired with rice wine, which are often enjoyed by the farmers in the countryside.

Fanciful aesthetics on traditional Korean Chuseok desserts

Mid-Autumn Festival

The mid-autumn festival (中秋节) falls on the same date, and is traditionally also a harvest festival celebrated anywhere around the world where there are Chinese people. Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and even Vietnam just to name a few. An important part of the festival celebration is moon worship, as the ancient Chinese believed in rejuvenation being associated with the moon and water. Instead of eating the Songpyeon like the Koreans, the Chinese would enjoy and share the mooncake (because it’s round?). In Chinese culture, a round shape symbolizes completeness and reunion. So everything round is probably good.

Mooncakes

Over the years, mooncakes have evolved a great deal, and besides the traditional lotus paste mooncakes and the popular snowskin mooncakes, do you know that there are actually many other different types of traditional mooncakes? Snowskin mooncakes now come in more diverse flavours, with tea infused flavours and other artisan flavours being in the trend these days.

So how would you immerse yourself this Chuseok and Mid-Autumn Festival?