Celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival in Markham
By David Yin, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
Markham’s Chinese community is preparing to celebrate one of the year’s most important cultural holidays, the Mid-Autumn Festival, which takes place on Oct. 6.
This festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese calendar, which correlates to September to early October on the Western calendar. Several countries in East and Southeast Asia celebrate it, including China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Typical activities include family dinners, moon worshipping, paper lantern crafts, and eating moon cakes.
Here are some events throughout Markham to celebrate the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival.
The King Square Shopping Centre will host a free Mid-Autumn Festival event on Oct. 4 from noon to 5 p.m. Visitors can participate in four activities, with each activity providing one of four tickets to play bingo: Taking a family photo while dressed in a traditional Chinese hanfu, answering a Chinese riddle, participating in a duck scavenger hunt, and building Chinese lanterns in exchange for ice cream.
The First Markham Place will host the Mid-Autumn Night’s Dream on Oct. 4. Visitors can enjoy a live performance at the food court at 7:30 p.m., followed by a firework display at the parking lot at 9:15 p.m.
The Togetherness Moon Festival Market takes place at the Markham Wesley Centre on Oct. 4 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. This event will feature lantern riddles, paper fan crafts, over 40 vendor booths, live music performances, 30 free goodie bags, and 200 free welcome packs.
Pacific Mall will host a grand show for its Mid-Autumn Celebration, in partnership with Real Canadian Superstore and Loblaws. It will occur on Oct. 5 from 1 to 3 p.m.
Becky Liang, sales and leasing manager of King Square Shopping Centre, said that the Mid-Autumn Festival is a way for Chinese people to spend time with their families.
“With this traditional Chinese festival, we want the young Chinese generation to get to know the festival and have fun with it,” she said.
Chinese people are Markham’s largest racialized group, making up 48 per cent of all residents, according to the 2021 Census.
Photo: This year’s Mid-Autumn Festival takes place on Oct. 6.