The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, Zhongqiu Festival, or in Chinese, Zhongqiujie (traditional Chinese: 中秋節), or in Vietnamese "T?t Trung Thu", is a popular harvest festival celebrated by Chinese and Vietnamese people, dating back over 3,000 years to moon worship in China's Shang Dynasty. It was first called Zhongqiu Jie (literally "Mid-Autumn Festival") in the Zhou Dynasty. In Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines, it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, which is usually around late September or early October in the Gregorian calendar. It is a date that parallels the autumnal equinox of the solar calendar, when the moon is supposedly at its fullest and roundest. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the few most important holidays in the Chinese calendar, To celebrate the 2010 Mid-Autumn festival, a troupe of top performers from Beijing organized by the Beijing Oversee Returning Reunion organization will perform a fantastic Gala Show here in Atlanta. The variety programs include singing, folk dance, and acrobatic, magic show representing different cultures from Han, Mongolian, Tibet, Korean, Xinjiang and others. The show is hosted by the Association of Chinese Professionals (ACP) in Atlanta, Atlanta Chinese Contemporary Academy (ACCA), and the Georgia State University Confucius Institute. For more information, please visit www.acp-atlanta.org .