Next: about 15 Sept 2027
Mid-Autumn Festival and chuseok
The harvest moon, with mooncakes of lotus paste, osmanthus tea and in Korea songpyeon scented with pine and sesame.
Spices for Mid-Autumn Festival and chuseok
On the 15th day of the eighth month, families watch the moon and share mooncakes filled with lotus seed paste, salted yolk or five kernel (five nut) mixes. Osmanthus flowers scent the wine, tea and sugar that go with it. In Korea, the same moon is Chuseok, when songpyeon, half-moon rice cakes steamed on pine needles with a sesame or chestnut filling, are made and ancestors are remembered. Both festivals have spices of subtlety: a hint of cassia in some fillings and ginger in the tea.
The spices
Also part of it, and being written: Osmanthus fragrans (Dried blossoms for tea, syrup and wine.).
Written by the EveryMasala desk with AI assistance. Background: "Mid-Autumn Festival" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Cinnamon: Luc Viatour, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Sesame: Anna Frodesiak, CC0, source