When Hong Kong's streets fill with lanterns and phone cameras tilt toward a bright, round moon, the Mid-Autumn Festival has truly arrived. Across the city, the celebration blends familiar traditions with new attractions, giving residents and visitors plenty of ways to join in.
One of this year's highlights is the Mid-Autumn Lantern Carnival at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay. Organizers introduced a new feature—a "World Lantern Boulevard" showcasing more than 3,000 lanterns from 20 countries and regions. Alongside the international display are over 400 locally made lanterns, including classic festival motifs such as white rabbits and goldfish.
At the center of the carnival stands a striking main installation: towering Chinese banyan trees rising to about eight meters. The piece was created by a 33-member team of craftsmen from Nanjing in eastern China. According to the project's manager, the design aims to recreate a distinctly Hong Kong memory—neighbors gathering under banyan trees to sit, chat, and cool off—a scene that echoes the festival's themes of family reunion and togetherness.
As night deepens, another signature tradition takes over: the century-old Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance. More than 300 performers lift and maneuver a 67-meter straw dragon frame studded with over 12,000 burning incense sticks. The procession begins in the Tai Hang neighborhood of Causeway Bay—home to a nationally recognized intangible cultural heritage tradition—and then moves westward toward Victoria Park to meet the lantern carnival. The dragon surges forward, coils into tight circles, and ripples across shifting formations as performers swing long poles in coordinated waves. Organizers say the performance typically requires up to six months of preparation, and many participants are former Tai Hang residents who return each year to keep the tradition alive.
Festival energy is also visible at popular tourist attractions. With the Mid-Autumn holiday period drawing travelers, many visitors have headed to Hong Kong Ocean Park, where the park's giant panda family marked the occasion with a special "festival feast." The report notes that Jia Jia and De De—the first giant pandas born in Hong Kong—enjoyed custom-made "mooncakes" prepared with ingredients such as biscuits and carrots, alongside their parents.
And while most people celebrate by looking up at the moon, one Hong Kong resident is looking back down from above. Lai Ka-ying, described as Hong Kong's first astronaut and currently serving as a payload specialist aboard China's Tiangong space station, sent Mid-Autumn greetings from roughly 400 kilometers above Earth. "In this moonlight we share, our hearts reach for one another," she said.
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