TAIPEI — Families in Taiwan are marking the Mid-Autumn Festival with mooncakes, barbecues, pomelos and gatherings as centuries-old traditions continue to connect relatives and communities across generations.
The festival, also widely celebrated on the Chinese mainland, centres on family reunion and remembrance. In Taiwan, some of its most familiar customs include admiring the full moon, sharing mooncakes, barbecuing and peeling pomelos.
Mooncakes and the full moon traditionally symbolize reunion, while pomelos are associated with good fortune and protection because of the pronunciation of their Chinese name.
Family traditions remain at heart of celebrations
For Taiwan businessman Chueh Jen-tsun, memories of the festival include charcoal fires, pomelos, fireworks beside the river and family trips to karaoke bars.
Ahead of this year’s celebrations, Chueh shared a social media video introducing Mid-Autumn traditions observed in Taiwan.
He recalled families heading to riversides after dinner to set off fireworks before spending the evening singing karaoke together, describing those experiences as enduring childhood memories.
The festival is also an occasion for remembrance and gratitude. Some families prepare meals to honour deceased relatives, while others maintain traditional religious practices and pray for well-being and good fortune.
Although individual customs vary between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland, family gatherings and maintaining connections with relatives remain central to celebrations on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Taipei and Jinan families connect by video
Historical migration from different parts of the Chinese mainland contributed to the development of communities and ancestral associations in Taiwan.
Dozens of such associations remain active and organize gatherings around traditional occasions including Lunar New Year, Qingming Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival.
Ahead of this year’s festival, people in Taipei and Jinan in eastern China’s Shandong Province held a video gathering to exchange greetings and celebrate despite the distance between them.
The virtual gathering has developed into an annual Mid-Autumn tradition and has been held for nearly a decade.
Yu Mao-sheng, who heads an association for Taiwan residents with family origins in Shandong, expressed hope that regular exchanges would continue and create more opportunities for people on both sides to meet.
Ancestral journeys reconnect families with their roots
For some Taiwan residents, Mid-Autumn reunion also means returning to their families’ ancestral hometowns.
Taiwan resident Teng Tai-hsien travelled to Zaozhuang in Shandong in early September to trace his family history and pay respects to his ancestors. His father had moved to Taiwan from Shandong more than seven decades ago.
Teng also travelled to Qingdao, Jinan and Yantai, where he met relatives and renewed family connections.
He said the journey fulfilled a promise to his father, who had repeatedly encouraged him to return to the family’s ancestral hometown and remember his roots.
Teng said he now hopes to take his children to Zaozhuang so they can learn more about their family history and maintain those connections for another generation.
Whether celebrated through a family dinner, a shared mooncake, a video call or a journey to an ancestral hometown, the Mid-Autumn Festival continues to place reunion and family ties at the centre of its traditions.