We are so excited for the Harvest Moon! The Harvest Moon was so named in Europe because the light of the full moon allowed farmers to work into the night to bring in the harvest. After the harvest was finished it was a time of celebration and rest. This full moon is always the one closer to the Autumnal Equinox so it’s most often in September, but sneaks into October every now and again. In many Asian cultures this full moon is known as the Mid-Autumn Festival. It’s is traditionally celebrated with mooncakes (which we have made one of our traditions too!) Have you ever looked up at the man in the moon? What westerners refer to as the man in the moon, many other cultures refer to the rabbit in the moon which is why the surprise in our lantern is a bunny! (In reality the dark shapes are craters and lunar maria or seas.) In some traditional tales the rabbit in the moon makes mochi! Many Latin American countries also see a rabbit in the moon so we use the rabbit in several of our celebrations.
We made these fun moon lanterns with a rabbit that only shows when you light them for our night hike to gaze at the moon. We usually begin the evening with a feast of mooncakes, Mexican hot chocolate and bunny mochi then we take our lanterns out to search for the moon.
In my family we have declared the Harvest Moon the official start of hot chocolate season because I won’t let my kids drink hot chocolate in the spring and summer (which is obviously tea season..) We celebrate with Mexican hot chocolates (I feel like the spice makes it appropriately fall-ish) and have a picnic in the treehouse.
And finally the Harvest Moon Feast! We borrow several traditions from the Mid Autumn Festival for our Harvest Moon celebrations- starting with mooncakes. We mix in our own harvest traditions by filling them with a cinnamon apple filling. We also love to make bunny mochi and I have a trick for this one. I fully meant to make mochi from scratch, but I ran out of time. Instead I bought pre-made mochi and clipped ears with scissors. A little food safe marker for eyes and you have adorable bunny mochi!
Rabbit mochi with taro and red bean paste. Two snips with the scissors, five minutes and a pink and black food marker later and you have adorable bunnies!
Gluten free mooncakes (still perfecting this recipe but getting there…) with cinnamon apple filling
Below are three of our favorite Harvest Moon books– we love to read them over and over in the days leading up to the Harvest Moon!
[…] is full of various lantern designs of varying complexity. (falling leaves lantern, star lanterns, harvest moon lanterns, frost lanterns) But when my kids were toddlers this was the go to lantern craft. It’s super […]