Mid-Autumn Festival will soon be upon us, which means it’s time to break out the lanterns to honour the long-time tradition of families giving thanks for the harvest. Held on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month in the Chinese calendar, the 2025 Hong Kong Mid-Autumn Festival falls on Monday 6 October, with a public holiday on Tuesday 7 October. Here’s our ultimate guide to finding lanterns, a fire dragon dance and mooncakes in Hong Kong!
What’s the festival all about?
The festival historically marks and celebrates the end of the autumn period of harvesting crops. During this thanksgiving celebration, families would traditionally gather to eat mooncakes in Hong Kong and admire the full moon. Moon worship also played a part; food was offered to the moon, and lanterns were carried to symbolise its light.
There are lots of legends surrounding this cultural festival, including the tale of famous archer Hou Yi and his beautiful wife Chang’E. In ancient times, 10 suns are said to have existed, making the heat unbearable. Hou Yi became a hero after shooting down nine of the ten suns. He was given a magical elixir of immortality for his bravery by a goddess. In order to protect the elixir from being stolen, Chang’E swallowed it, causing her to fly to the moon, where she has remained forever. In her honour, people eat mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival and they look at the moon in hopes of seeing her.
Modern celebrations
So, how do people recognise Mid-Autumn Festival in Hong Kong these days? Well, we still come together to celebrate with family – and, for many expats, that can mean being with our close friends because we’re away from family back in our home countries.
A must-see event over the course of the festival period is the enormous fire dragon dance in Tai Hang. At this event, a Chinese dragon constructed with 10,000 glowing incense sticks winds through the streets down to Tin Hau, behind Causeway Bay. It’s quite a sight! (For details, visit taihangfiredragon.hk.)
If you can’t make it to Tai Hang, the good news is that there are local gatherings held all over the city. Here’s our guide to some of the best places for enjoying the festivities.
#1 Fire dragon dance at Pok Fu Lam Village
This may be a smaller scale version of the Tai Hang fire dragon dance, but for those in the Pok Fu Lam neighbourhood, it’s a great option. The event is all about community, so make sure you don’t miss it if you live nearby. It’s being held on the evening of 6 October.
#2 Causeway Bay Mid-Autumn Lantern Carnival
Lantern Carnivals are held in a few places across the city. This one in Causeway Bay’s Victoria Park is a must-see for those living on the Island. It features beautiful lanterns, cultural performances and stalls with games. Some lanterns incorporate modern elements like LED lighting that create occasional light shows.
#3 Tai Hang Fire Dragon Heritage Centre
The centre’s ground floor exhibits the Fire Dragon Dance, a central tradition of Tai Hang’s cultural heritage. The exhibition explains the dance’s origins and meaning, demonstrates the craftsmanship involved in creating the dragon, and introduces aspects of the local Hakka community. The displays use digital projections and multimedia to provide an interactive learning experience.
#4 Tai Yuen Street (Toy Street)
Tai Yuen Street in Wan Chai is known for its wide range of toys, children’s collectibles, and decorations for this festival.
#5 Local beaches
If you live near Shek O Beach, Discovery Bay’s Tai Pak Beach, Repulse Bay Beach or many other beaches, you can head there and you’ll likely find your community gathered with lights. It’s a fun evening for the kids and many families bring a picnic.
# 6 Stroll at Lee Tung Ave
Lee Tung Avenue in Wan Chai is another spot for picture-taking during the Mid-Autumn Festival with its 200-metre-long walkway lit up by a colourful canopy of lanterns.
# 7 Fuk Wing Street (Toy Street)
Fuk Wing Street in Sham Shui Po is a pedestrian-friendly shopping area with over 30 stores providing toys, collectibles, gadgets, and stationery. Families or visitors can enjoy browsing alongside the atmosphere of nearby market streets, with plenty of souvenirs and street snacks. During festive seasons like Mid-Autumn, the street becomes lively with seasonal decorations and themed items.
Festival Tip: Say no to glow sticks!
Glow sticks are popular at these events but please keep in mind they’re very damaging to the environment. This is single-use plastic at it’s worst. So, keep the glow sticks at home and try a lantern with a torch.
More about mooncakes
When this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival falls on 6 October, families will get together and share mooncakes, the traditional puck-shaped Chinese pastries that are synonymous with the festival. Here are a few snippets of trivia about them!
- Legend has it that during the Yuan Dynasty, mooncakes were used to hide secret messages that fostered a rebellion against the Mongol rulers of the day. The uprising led to the founding of the Ming dynasty.
- The round shapes of mooncakes is said to represent unity and togetherness – hence their popularity as gifts exchanged between family and friends.
- Traditional mooncakes are stamped on top with the Chinese characters for “longevity” or “harmony”, along with the name of the bakery and the type of filling inside.
- While the classic mooncake filling includes lotus seed paste and salted egg yolk (the yolk representing the moon), modern incarnations include a whole range of delicious ingredients, from matcha and ice cream, to truffle, chocolate, matcha and durian. You’ll also find some extravagantly boxed mooncakes – especially popular as corporate gifts.
- Mooncakes are popular in other Asian countries, including Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
- Snow-skin mooncakes first entered the market in the 1960s, as a response to the reputation of normal mooncakes being very oily. The outer layer of this variety is made of frozen glutinous rice – similar to mochi ice cream in Japan.
- In 2018, a mooncake emoji was introduced (Unicode: U+1F96E), following a proposal highlighting a lack of traditional Chinese desserts among emojis. 🥮
Want to find out about other traditions like the Mid-Autmn Festival in Hong Kong? We have a heap of trivia and interesting things to discover in our Living in Hong Kong section.
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