During the festival, families carry lanterns to go for a walk while enjoying the beautiful full moon. It is another important festival for Chinese people.
Celebrating Chinese festivals and traditions is an effective and fun way to introduce children to the Chinese language.
In this blog post, I’m going to tell you more about the Mid-Autumn Festival, and also walk you through the steps of making the Mid-Autumn Festival Lanterns using a FREE template available for download.
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Table of Contents
What is the meaning of the Mid-Autumn Festival?
A famous Chinese poet, 蘇軾 Su shi, wrote this beautiful verse describing the meaning of the Mid-Autumn Festival:
“May we live long and share the beauty of the moon, even if we are hundreds of miles apart.”
但願人長久 千裡共嬋娟 (蘇軾)
但愿人长久 千里共婵娟 (苏轼)
Mid-Autumn Festival is like Thanksgiving for Americans.
Chinese people celebrate the harvest of the fall and completeness of families under the beautiful full moon. They hope their family will stay healthy and happy for the rest of the year.
Why Do We Carry Lanterns During Mid-Autumn Festival?
People light lanterns to symbolize family reunion and to pray for good luck and fortune during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Nowadays, everyone carries and plays with lanterns or candles as a family during the Mid-Autumn Festival. It became a custom and tradition.
In my family, picking a new lantern or making a new one, and carrying during our walk while enjoying lantern shows is a family tradition and our way of celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival.
What to do during the Mid-Autumn Festival?
- Have a Family Feast:
- Eat Mooncakes
- Appreciate the Moon
- Worship the Moon
- Make and Play with Mid-Autumn Festival Lanterns
Then when I was a teenager, We would still go to have dinner with my family at my grandparents’ home. Afterward, I usually went to the beach and had a BBQ with my friends. We would eat, play candles, and hang out until midnight.
Now I am a mother of four. We have made our traditions such as making homemade mooncakes a couple of days before the festival. Also, I cook dinner and invite my parents to eat with us that day. We go out and play lanterns together. My husband even encouraged my children to have a paper lantern fight as well. Afterward, we eat mooncakes and walk along the ocean together.
Mid-Autumn Festival is a favorite Chinese festival for me because it’s all about family. It’s time to focus on our family and have fun together. Plus, the candles, lanterns, and lights look amazing at night, and we all enjoy it a lot.
How Do You Make Mid-Autumn Festival Lanterns for Kids?
Materials Needed
- Two sheets of A4 or letter size construction paper.
- Scissors
- Glue, double-sided tape, tape, or stapler
- Coloring pencils, markers, or crayons
- Decoration {stickers, stamps, glitter, etc.} (optional)
Instructions
- Print out the lantern pattern (three choices: preschoolers, kindergarteners, and upper level), and an inner page (either colored or black and white).
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Let’s see how did we do
Mid-Autumn Festival Lanterns Complete Sets
If you want more choices for the inner page, there is a full set of lanterns that has 3 lanterns’ pattern and 10 pages with 5 choices of the inner coloring pages(colored and black & white).
The 10 inner page images are :
- Moon lady and a bunny on the moon
- A family eats mooncakes together, kids play lanterns
- A family have a family feast, and the moon
- Mooncakes, and fruits to eat during the Mid-Autumn Festival
- Dad reads the Mid-Autumn Festival story with the children, and a picture of Chang E.
Resources to Teach your Children about Mid-Autumn Festival
Using Chinese historical stories, myths, and tales is a great way to introduce Chinese to children. It’s just more fun, engaging, and real for them.
Here are some Chinese printables and resources (printables, books, visual aids, and even digital games) for you to help you teach more about the Mid-Autumn Festival in a fun and non-traditional way.
There are different language versions for fluent and non-fluent parents as well, so I hope these Chinese teaching resources will be helpful for you.
Please let me know which resource(s) you liked and what is your experience with them in the comments below. I’d love to hear from you.
Mid-Autumn Festival Chinese Theme Packs
Chinese Children Books: Mid-Autumn Festival
Mid-Autumn Festival Vocabulary Posters
Boom Cards I-SPY: Mid-Autumn Festival
There are 7 language versions:
- English
- English, Traditional Chinese with Jyutping (Cantonese)
- English, Traditional Chinese with Pinyin
- English, Simplified Chinese with Pinyin
- Traditional Chinese with Jyutping (Cantonese)
- Traditional Chinese with Pinyin
- Simplified Chinese with Pinyin
Which lanterns pattern do you like the most?
How do you celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with your family?
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