The Moon or Mid-Autumn Festival, on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, observes the biggest and brightest full moon of the year, the harvest moon.

One legend about the Moon Festival concerns expert architect Hou Yih, who built a palace of jade for the Goddess of the western heaven. In reward, she gave Hou Yih a pill with the elixir of immortality, warning him not to take it until he had fulfilled certain conditions. Hou Yih's ever-curious wife, Chang O, found the pill and promptly swallowed it. As punishment, she was banished to the moon where, according to tradition, her beauty is at its most radiant on the day of the Moon Festival.

The Festival is a public holiday marked by family reunions, moon gazing, and the eating of moon cakes-round pastries stuffed with red bean paste and an egg yolk, or fruit and preserves.