Mid-Autumn Festival, also known by various names such as the Moon Festival, Chinese Lantern Festival, Mooncake Festival and Zhongqiu Festival, is a popular lunar harvest festival celebrated by Chinese and Vietnamese people. The festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese calendar, which is in September or early October in the Gregorian calendar, when the moon is at its maximum brightness.

The festival is a day of family reunion much like Thanksgiving. Chinese people believe that on that day, the moon is the roundest and brightest—signalling a time of completeness and abundance. During the festival, children are delighted to stay up past midnight, parading multi-coloured lanterns into the wee hours as families take to the streets to moon-gaze. A special kind of sweet pastry cake is made in the shape of the moon, and filled with a sweet paste made from sesame seeds, lotus seeds or red beans. Lobster and salmon are particular favourites along with apples, pomegranates, roasted peanuts, pomelos, and chestnuts.