The Mid-Autumn Day and National Day of 2017 will be celebrated from Oct.1-8.

The People's Republic of China (PRC) observes its anniversary on 1 October. China's National Day has been celebrated in various ways during the history of the PRC.

In China, the holiday is officially three days, but the holidays are usually extended by bridge holidays compensated by working on weekends depending how the holiday falls in the week. This creates a so-called 'Golden Week' of holidays. This makes it the second largest holiday period in China. This approach was introduced in 2000 to help boost domestic tourism and to allow families to make long journeys to visit relatives.

Military parade and celebration will be held on the Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Nationwide traveling peak from Oct. 1st to 7th is regarded as the 'Golden Week'.

The Mid Autumn festival starts on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month.

This festival originated in a fairy tale. A hero names Hou Yi saved his people by shooting down the other nine suns that burned his people to death. He was then bestowed with the elixir of immortality by the Queen Mother of the West.

He did not want to consume the elixir and leave his beautiful but very mortal wife, Chang Er, so he gave the elixir to his wife for safekeeping. Unfortunately, Hou Yi's disloyal apprentice forced Chang Er to swallow the elixir. She then became a supernatural being. She flew to the moon, and from there watched her husband.

Knowing that his wife had now been separated from him, Hou Yi was crazed with grief. Looking up at the moon one night, he saw a figure like his wife. He hurriedly took cakes and succade (preserves in sugar, whether fruits, vegetables, or confections) as offerings to his wife.

Upon hearing this, people developed the custom of watching the moon and eating moon cakes annually on this day.

Activities include Fire Dragon dancing, enjoying the displays of lanterns, and eating moon cakes. People eat moon cakes under the moonlight with family members. Moon cakes are pastries filled with gooey sesame, red bean, and walnut meats.

People will use the break to visit their families, with over 40 million train journeys taking place in China during the days of the festival.

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