The Mid-Autumn Festival, or Moon Festival, is a celebration of the autumn harvest observed by the Chinese and other Asian peoples. It falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, the full moon closest to the fall equinox. Originally a plea to the gods for rains to ensure a good harvest next year, Mid-Autumn Festival has become a more secular bit of autumn fun, with children and adults gathering to give thanks, eat sweet mooncakes, and light lanterns like the hand-painted ones we"re looking at here from a previous celebration in Singapore. This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival coincidentally lands on another holiday, China"s National Day.
A lunar lantern celebration
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
-
Up in the Highlands
-
World Whale Day
-
A notorious gunfight that was incorrectly named
-
A star is borne by seaweed
-
Chapel on the rock
-
High trekking season in Upper Mustang
-
Easter
-
Castle ruins on the island of Halki, Greece
-
International Tiger Day
-
International Surfing Day
-
An historic forest
-
A cliffside harbor in Sardinia
-
Arbor Day
-
No, it s not a leaf. Happy Look-alike Day
-
Dressed to impress
-
A delta in the Venetian Lagoon, Italy
-
Abbey Gardens in Bury St Edmunds, England
-
World Elephant Day
-
Sanday Island and the North Sea, Scotland
-
Irohazaka road
-
Golling Waterfall, Salzburg, Austria
-
A bull, some flowers, and a stratovolcano
-
Big sky at Big Bend
-
Kissing Day
-
Happy World Laughter Day
-
Honoring some real heroes of World War II
-
SantaPark, Lapland, Finland
-
Wildlife Conservation Day
-
World Octopus Day
-
‘Fringe’ takes center stage as Edinburgh celebrates the arts
Bing Wallpaper Gallery

