Mid-Autumn Festival 2022 Moon Gazing Tips

The glow of lanterns, savoury and sweet mooncakes, and a beaming full moon will mark celebrations for Mid-Autumn Festival on Sep 10. To prepare for the three-day weekend, and welcome a bright and full moon with your family and friends, keep an eye out for Moonrise at 6.43pm on Saturday, September 10. The moon will be at its highest at 00.40am and moonset will take place at 6.43am on Sunday, September 11. Stay on top of the Hong Kong Observatory weather forecasts to make the most of your moon-viewing. Keen moon watchers will know that the moon as seen by us from the Earth is completely illuminated, with the moon and the sun located on opposite sides of the Earth — a breathtaking sight in fair weather.

If you’re keen on photographing the full moon, experts recommend avoiding over exposure by switching to manual mode. Given its distance from the earth, you might find it a bit of a challenge to create an attractive composition even with a telephoto lens. With a higher resolution of 10-megapixels or more, you can crop the image to enhance the proportions of the Moon in your composition. Or choose a beautiful foreground object, anything that catches your fancy, for a moon photo with an evocative, artistic touch.

It’s comforting to know that we’ll be joining many centuries of moon watchers on this special day. The origins of the moon viewings goes back thousands and thousands of years. The Mid-Autumn Festival was first widely celebrated in China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) but its origins are traced by some scholars back to the "Book of Rites," a tome by Confucius on bureaucracy and rituals written over 2,400 years ago (and some origin stories go back even further to the worship of celestial phenomenon in the Zhou dynasty). This was the day emperors celebrated the year's harvest by giving offerings to the beautiful moon and hosting an extravagant feast for the people. Today, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for families and friends to gather in full circle. Remember to grab some delicious edibles — mooncakes, tea, alcohol, dessert and fruit — to host your own memorable moon viewing.

The moon festival goddess is a much loved, if somewhat tragic folk myth, a story with many different versions, and familiar to children in China and South East Asia. According to the legend, after mythical archer Hou Yi heroically shot down nine suns to protect the earth from scorching heat, he was rewarded with an elixir of immortality from heaven. Hou Yi's wife Chang'e drank the elixir to protect it from a greedy apprentice, but became so light that she floated to the moon. Missing his wife, Hou Yi prepared a sumptuous banquet every year on the day when the moon is at its peak, in the hope of a glimpse of his wife's shadow. If you have kids around, or are still young at heart, try and spot Chang’e on the moon!

(Source: Coucou Hotpot・Brew Tea)

May the Round Moon Bring You Joy and Happiness. So set a table outdoors and join your family and friends to admire the full moon and enjoy this delightful celebration. Here’s our guide to our popular Mid-Autumn Festival treats aside from mooncakes, including tea, alcohol, desserts and fruit.