Mid-Autumn Festival Lanterns Craft for Kids

by | Blog, Chinese Printable, Teaching Chinese at Home

Making Mid-Autumn Festival Lanterns is a common activity for children and families for celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival.

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.

The post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you. If you make a purchase through a link. See the Disclosure for more details.

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?

  1. Have a Family Feast:
  2. Eat Mooncakes
  3. Appreciate the Moon
  4. Worship the Moon
  5. Make and Play with Mid-Autumn Festival Lanterns
When I was young, I went to visit my grandparents and have a family feast during the Mid-Autumn Festival. After dinner, we all went down to the park, then my parents and relatives would give me a new lantern to play with. Sometimes, we would go to the lantern shows as a family.

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

  1. Print out the lantern pattern (three choices: preschoolers, kindergarteners, and upper level), and an inner page (either colored or black and white).

 

2. Lantern Pattern: : Cutting along the dotted lines first cut and set aside the top strip that has writing on it. Then, fold the remaining portion in half (Hotdog fold) . Follow the dotted lines and leave an uncut border around the edge.

 

3. Inner Page: : Using scissors, cut out the inner page. If you have a black and white one, color the page.

 

4. Put glue or double-sided tape on the bottom strip (the bar with lines in it). Align the bottom and left edges together. Secure into place. (The Lantern Pattern is larger than the inner page. This allows it to protrude outward.

 

5. On the right-hand side there will be a strip of the inner page not covered by the lantern pattern. Place glue on this strip, wrap it around backward and secure it to the left edge forming a tube.

 

7. Use the strip that was set aside to make a handle by attaching the ends to opposite sides of one end of the inner tube.

 

8. You are ready for the Mid-Autumn Festival!

 

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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

Mid-Autumn Festival Chinese theme packs

Chinese Children Books: Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival Chinese children books

Mid-Autumn Festival Vocabulary Posters

Mid-Autumn Festival 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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身为职业妈妈的我,常常牺牲睡眠来自作教材。版主全方位学习的新年教材真让我省下不少宝贵的时间找资料。四岁的女儿对中文学习有点抗拒。我们善用版主提供的迷你故事书和生字卡来增强她对语文的认识。版主的中文单词棋盘游戏更让女儿投入学习, 因为她想赢嘛!版主的教材可让小孩边玩边学, 太棒了。

Grace

两个小孩的职业妈妈

This is the second 5-Day Challenge that we have done with Fortune Cookie Mom. Both have been very beneficial to our family. I am a homeschool mom of three little kids. We are not Chinese and do not speak any Chinese. With the help of Fortune Cookie Mom, we are slowly learning! The challenges have given me fun activities to do at home with the kids. Each one has reignited my kid's interest in learning. It has been a fun experience for everybody!

Nicolette

Homeschooling Mom of Three

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