每年农历八月十五，是全球华人思念家乡的日子——中秋节。按照中国古代历法，农历七八九三个月是秋季，八月十五正好在三个月中间，因此称为中秋节。

The Mid-autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. On this day, Chinese all over the world would get homesick. According to the Chinese ancient calendar, the seventh, the eighth and ninth month constitute the autumn season. The 15th day of the eighth month is just in the midst of the season, and therefore called the Mid-autumn Festival.

　   中秋节这天，亲人聚在一起吃团圆饭是很重要的事情。吃过饭，有些地方还会举行拜月仪式。人们摆上各种水果和点心，点上蜡烛，进行祭拜。这时候，中秋节特有的点心——月饼是必不可少的。据说，月饼这种点心已经有1000多年的历史了，最早是祭拜月神的供品，因为形状像满月，人们就把它称为月饼。后来，吃月饼、赏圆月成为中秋节的风俗，月饼也就成了吉祥团圆的象征。

On the day of the festival, family members will sit around a table to enjoy an important reunion dinner. In some areas, when the dinner is over, the ceremony of moon-worshipping begins. Offerings of fruit and cakes will be put on the altar and candles lit. For sacrificial rites, moon cakes, a very unique pastry of the festival, are indispensible. The moon cakes are said to have a history of over a thousand years. At first they served only as offerings to the Moon Goddess. Because the original cakes were shaped like the full moon, so they were called moon cakes. Later on, eating moon cakes and appreciating the beauty of the moon have become the customs of the festival with moon cakes as the symbol of unity and felicity.

　   祭月仪式中，还有一个重要的活动——赏月作诗。中国古代诗人写出了许多与月亮有关的诗词，如唐朝诗人张九龄的“海上生明月，天涯共此时”，宋代文学家苏轼的“但愿人长久，千里共婵娟”。

An important activity of sacrificial rites is to compose poems under the moon. Ancient Chinese poets wrote a great many poems about the moon. For example, a poem by a Tang poet Zhang Jiuling: “Over the sea the moon shines bright; we gaze at it far, far apart.” and another poem by a Song writer Su Shi: “My one wish for you, then, is long life and a share in this loveliness far, far away.”

　   如果说春节寄托了人们对来年幸福生活的渴望，中秋节就是人们对家庭团圆美满的祝愿。

If the Spring Festival gives rise to people’s expectation of future happiness, the Mid-autumn Festival then revokes their warm desire for harmonious family life.