中秋节是中国传统节日之一，为每年的农历八月十五，此时正值秋季过半，故名中秋。中秋节的晚上，人们举家欢聚，点花灯、品月饼、赏明月，中秋夜的月亮是一年中最圆、最亮的，亦称满月，象征着家人的团聚，因此中秋节也被人们视为团圆的节日。
The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most important festivities in China, According to Chinese lunar calendar, the 15th day of the 8th month is the exact midst of autumn, so it's called the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival is an evening celebration when families gather together to light lanterns, eat moon cakes and appreciate the round moon. On that night, the moon appears to be at its roundest and brightest. The full moon is a symbol for family reunion, which is why that day is also known as the Festival of Reunion.

中秋节的历史可以追溯到2000多年前，在古老的封建时代，中国帝王要向上天祈求一年风调雨顺、国泰民安，他们在每年农历二月十五的早晨，及八月十五的晚上进行祈福活动。历代帝王每年都会前往位于北京西城的月坛公园祭奉月亮。
The Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations date back to more than 2,000 years ago. In feudal times, Chinese emperors prayed to Heaven for a prosperous year. They chose the morning of the 15th day of the second lunar month to worship the sun and the night of the 15th day of the eighth lunar month to hold a ceremony in praise of the moon...

中秋节吃月饼的传统在中国有着悠久的历史，但关于它的起源有着不同的说法。
The tradition of eating moon-cakes on this festival has a long history in China, yet there are different versions of statements about its origin.

当我们举头望明月时，会在月亮上看到一个黑影。这就是传说中的砍树人吴刚。根据传说，吴刚是一个普通的樵夫，对修仙十分着迷。他曾到深山中，请一位神仙当老师，学习仙术。
When we look up at the bright moon, we can see a black shadow on the moon, which is the legendary Wu Gang who is trying to cut down the sweet osmanthus tree. According to legends, Wu Gang was an ordinary woodcutter who was obsessed with becoming an immortal. He went to mountains and asked an immortal as his teacher and sought instructions from him.

然而，吴刚既不用功，也没有耐心，不能专心学习。他的神仙老师便非常生气，让吴刚呆在月亮上。他命令吴刚砍倒月宫上的桂树，并告诉他，一旦他砍倒了桂树，就可以成为神仙。吴刚拼尽全力用斧子砍倒桂树，但是这个树却会重新长成它本来的样子。这样，年复一年，日复一日，吴刚都在不断地砍伐桂树。尽管如此，由于树的重生，他始终不能将它砍倒。
However, Wu Gang was very shiftless and impatient and couldn’t concentrate his attention. The immortal was enraged and made him stay on the moon. The immortal let Wu Gang to cut down the sweet osmanthus tree on the moon and informed him that he could become an immortal once he cut down the tree. Wu Gang tried his best to cut the tree with his axe; however, the tree would regrow naturally as what it was like. Thus, Wu Gang kept cutting the sweet osmanthus tree day after day, but couldn’t manage to cut it down because of its regrowth.

中秋节吃月饼可以追溯到元代（1271–1368)。当时，广大人民不堪忍受元朝统治阶级的残酷统治，纷纷起义抗元。一位叫朱元璋的领导者决定联合各路反抗力量准备起义。
Eating moon cakes during Mid-autumn festival can date back to the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) when the common people couldn’t bear the brutal reign of the ruling class and they began to resist and rebel. A leader named Zhu Yuanzhang decided to gather all the resistance forces and prepared to rebel together.

然而，起义的信息很难传送给每一个人。就在那时，朱元璋的军师刘伯温想出了一个主意。他命令属下把藏有“八月十五夜起义”的纸条藏入月饼里，再传送到起义军中，通知他们在八月十五日晚上起义响应。到了农历八月十五（中秋节）那天，各路义军一齐响应，获得了巨大的成功。为了纪念这场起义胜利，人们便在中秋节吃月饼。
However, the rebelling information was very difficult to deliver to every one. Just at that time, Zhu Yuanzhang’s military counselor named Liu Bowen had an idea that he ordered the subordinates to put a slip of paper with the words of rebelling on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month on it in each moon cake and then try to send these moon cakes to insurrectionary armies. Thus, on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month (mid-autumn day), all the insurrectionary army men rebelled together and they made great success. In celebration of the great success, people ate moon cakes on the Mid-autumn day.

中秋节背后还有这样一个传说，讲述中国历史上齐国的一位叫做无艳的普通女孩的故事。因为超群的品德，无艳被选入宫，但由于相貌不出众，她始终未承龙恩。
One of the legends behind this festival tells the story of a plain girl named Wu Yan, who was from Qi; an ancient nation in China. Wu Yan was chosen for the Emperor's palace because of her outstanding morality but she never attracted the attention of the Emperor due to her appearance.
但是，身为少女，无艳曾虔诚拜月，这带给了她特殊的力量。八月十五夜晚，天子在月光下见到她，觉得她美丽出众，与她坠入爱河，后迎娶并立她为齐国皇后。八月十五中秋拜月由此而来。
However, as a youngster Wu Yan had worshipped the Moon and this gave her special powers so that on the night of the 15th of August, when she met the emperor in the moonlight, he saw her as beautiful and fell in love with her immediately. Wu Yan later married the Emperor and became the queen of Qi, and from this moment on the tradition of worshipping the Moon on the 15th of August began.
然而很多时候，年轻的中国女性拜月另有原因。那就是希望自己可以貌美如嫦娥，那名传说住在月亮上的女神。
However, young Chinese ladies also worship the Moon for another reason - in the hope that they can become as beautiful as Chang'e, a girl who, according to Chinese legend, lives in the moon.

中秋节正是稻子成熟的时候。在中秋节农民们会祭拜土地神，土地神的生日就是这一天。很可能在古老传统上，中秋节即意味着秋天的到来。就一年中的季节而言，中秋节也被命名为“丰收节，”在这一天春天播种的庄稼得以收获。从古代开始，人们就会在中秋节喝酒，跳舞，唱歌，来庆祝丰收。这个场景能在《诗经》（古代中国最早的诗歌总集）找到。
The Mid-Autumn day is the very moment of rice maturity. And at that day farmers will worship the local God of land, whose birthday is exactly on that day. Mid-Autumn day is possibly an old tradition of telling the coming of autumn. In terms of the seasons in a year, the Mid-Autumn day can be named as "Harvest Day", when the crops sowed in the spring can be reaped. Since ancient times, people would drink, dance, and sing on that day, celebrating the harvest. This scene can be found in the Books of Odes (the earliest collection of poems in ancient China).

根据早期描述，古代的君王有着祭月的传统，但是这一天是在秋分，而不是中秋节。然而，每年秋分的日子都不同，在秋分不一定有圆月。因此，祭月被人们认可成中秋节上的一个习俗，中秋节就是月亮最圆的时候。
According to the previous descriptions, the ancient emperors had the tradition of worshiping the moon, yet the day was initially on the day of Autumn Equinox, and not on the Mid-Autumn day. However, the Autumn Equinox is not a fixed day and there may or may not be a full moon on that day. Therefore, the day for worshipping the moon was accepted as a convention on the Mid-Autumn day, when the moon is in its fullest.