Photo by Min An from Pexels

At Barrett and Welsh, we'd like to say zhōngqiū kuàilè – 中秋節快樂 – to all our friends celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival today and Chuseok jal ji nae sae yo to our Korean friends.

Mid-Autumn folklore and customs can vary widely depending on regional origin. But, as with many other harvest celebrations, food is at the heart of all festivities. In Japan, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam, mooncakes of varying shapes are baked or steamed (over pine needles for example, in Korea).

Here in Canada, far away from the epic scale of everything Asian, some 1.6 million Chinese Canadians continue many of these traditions, exchanging gifts of mooncakes and celebrating the abundance of the harvest. Around 200,000 Korean Canadians join the party as they celebrate the harvest festival of Chuseok at the same time.

The Mid-Autumn festival is essentially an Asian Thanksgiving. Family and friends gather and companionably share the bounty of the land, in the light of the harvest moon.

When you think about it that way, it feels like a very Canadian thing.

And that, my friends, calls for a bit of Neil Young.