When Is the Mid-Autumn Festival?
Mid-Autumn Festival 2026 falls on Friday, September 25.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, the night of the fullest moon of the year. Five calendars on this site mark it, and they disagree in an unusually revealing way: Hong Kong and Macau give you the day *after* the festival off, because the lanterns and the mooncakes happen at night. Mainland China and Taiwan give the day itself. South Korea gives three days and calls it Chuseok.
Also known as: Moon Festival · Mooncake Festival · Chuseok · 中秋節
The short answer
5 countries and regions in our calendar mark it. Dates and days off below cover 2025–2028.
- 2025
- Monday, October 6
- 2026
- Friday, September 25
- 2027
- Wednesday, September 15
- 2028
- Tuesday, October 3
Dates year by year
Who gets the day off
Every row is derived from that country’s official calendar on this site, so the day counts include substitute days and government bridge days exactly as gazetted.
Mid-Autumn Festival 2025
| Country / region | Called | Date | Days off |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节)A statutory day off; in years when it lands next to National Day the two merge into one long break. | Oct 1 – 8 | 8days |
| Taiwan | Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節)A one-day holiday that is routinely bridged into a three- or four-day weekend. | Oct 4 – 6 | 3days |
| Hong Kong On the statutory list | The day following Mid-Autumn FestivalHong Kong gives the day *after* the festival off, because the lanterns come out at night. | October 7, 2025 | 1days |
| Macau On the statutory list | The day following Mid-Autumn FestivalSame rule as Hong Kong: the holiday is the morning after. | October 7, 2025 | 1days |
| South Korea Same date, local festival | Chuseok (추석)The same full moon, but three days off instead of one — the biggest travel week of the Korean year. Korea dates the lunar month in KST, so Chuseok can land a day away from Mid-Autumn. | Oct 5 – 8 | 4days |
China
Taiwan
Hong Kong
Macau
South KoreaMid-Autumn Festival 2026
| Country / region | Called | Date | Days off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taiwan | Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節)A one-day holiday that is routinely bridged into a three- or four-day weekend. | Sep 25 – 28 | 4days |
| China | Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节)A statutory day off; in years when it lands next to National Day the two merge into one long break. | Sep 25 – 27 | 3days |
| Hong Kong On the statutory list | The day following Mid-Autumn FestivalHong Kong gives the day *after* the festival off, because the lanterns come out at night. | September 26, 2026 | 1days |
| Macau On the statutory list | The day following Mid-Autumn FestivalSame rule as Hong Kong: the holiday is the morning after. | September 26, 2026 | 1days |
| South Korea Same date, local festival | Chuseok (추석)The same full moon, but three days off instead of one — the biggest travel week of the Korean year. Korea dates the lunar month in KST, so Chuseok can land a day away from Mid-Autumn. | Sep 24 – 26 | 3days |
Mid-Autumn Festival 2027
| Country / region | Called | Date | Days off |
|---|---|---|---|
| China Provisional | Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节)A statutory day off; in years when it lands next to National Day the two merge into one long break. | September 15, 2027 | 1days |
| Taiwan | Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節)A one-day holiday that is routinely bridged into a three- or four-day weekend. | September 15, 2027 | 1days |
| Hong Kong On the statutory list | The day following Mid-Autumn FestivalHong Kong gives the day *after* the festival off, because the lanterns come out at night. | September 16, 2027 | 1days |
| Macau ProvisionalOn the statutory list | The day following Mid-Autumn FestivalSame rule as Hong Kong: the holiday is the morning after. | September 16, 2027 | 1days |
| South Korea Same date, local festival | Chuseok (추석)The same full moon, but three days off instead of one — the biggest travel week of the Korean year. Korea dates the lunar month in KST, so Chuseok can land a day away from Mid-Autumn. | Sep 14 – 16 | 3days |
Rows marked provisional show only the dates already fixed. Where a government sets the length of the break by annual decree — mainland China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia — the full arrangement has not been published for that year yet, so treat those day counts as a floor and any blank as "not announced", not as a working day.
Mid-Autumn Festival 2028
| Country / region | Called | Date | Days off |
|---|---|---|---|
| China Provisional | Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节)A statutory day off; in years when it lands next to National Day the two merge into one long break. | October 3, 2028 | 1days |
| Taiwan Provisional | Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節)A one-day holiday that is routinely bridged into a three- or four-day weekend. | October 3, 2028 | 1days |
| Hong Kong ProvisionalOn the statutory list | The day following Mid-Autumn FestivalHong Kong gives the day *after* the festival off, because the lanterns come out at night. | October 4, 2028 | 1days |
| Macau ProvisionalOn the statutory list | The day following Mid-Autumn FestivalSame rule as Hong Kong: the holiday is the morning after. | October 4, 2028 | 1days |
| South Korea Same date, local festivalProvisional | Chuseok (추석)The same full moon, but three days off instead of one — the biggest travel week of the Korean year. Korea dates the lunar month in KST, so Chuseok can land a day away from Mid-Autumn. | Oct 2 – 5 | 4days |
Rows marked provisional show only the dates already fixed. Where a government sets the length of the break by annual decree — mainland China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia — the full arrangement has not been published for that year yet, so treat those day counts as a floor and any blank as "not announced", not as a working day.
Why Hong Kong and Macau take the day after
The festival is celebrated after dark — lantern displays in Victoria Park, family gatherings, mooncakes at midnight. A holiday on the day itself would be wasted; a holiday the morning after is not. Both Hong Kong and Macau therefore gazette "the day following the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival" rather than the festival, which is the one case on this site where the official holiday and the festival are deliberately on different dates.
When Mid-Autumn collides with National Day
In mainland China the Mid-Autumn Festival sits close to National Day on 1 October, and in some years the two are merged into a single extended block instead of two separate breaks. That is why the mainland row in the table below occasionally shows a much longer span than one day — and why the number of make-up workdays around it jumps in those years.
One moon, four names
The festival is 中秋節 in Chinese-speaking places, Chuseok (추석) in Korea, Tết Trung Thu in Vietnam — where it is a children’s festival rather than a public holiday — and Tsukimi in Japan, which kept the moon-viewing custom but never made it a day off. Only the first two groups appear in the table below, because only they close offices.
Go deeper
Frequently asked questions
What date is the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2026 and 2027?+
It falls on Friday 25 September 2026 and Wednesday 15 September 2027. In Hong Kong and Macau the public holiday is the following day, 26 September 2026 and 16 September 2027.
Why is the Hong Kong holiday not on the festival day?+
Because the celebration is nocturnal. Hong Kong gazettes "the day following the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival" so that people can stay out for the lantern displays and still recover the next morning.
Is the Mid-Autumn Festival a holiday in Japan?+
No. Japan observes the same full moon as Tsukimi with moon-viewing customs and dango, but it has never been a statutory holiday. Japan’s September holidays are Respect for the Aged Day and the Autumnal Equinox instead.
Is Mid-Autumn the same as Chuseok?+
Same lunar date, same moon, different holiday. Korea builds a three-day break around it and calls it Chuseok; the Chinese-speaking calendars give one day, or the day after. Korea reckons the lunar month in KST rather than CST, so in some years the two even print on different Gregorian dates.
Why does the date change every year?+
It is fixed to the lunar calendar — always the 15th day of the eighth lunar month — so against the Gregorian calendar it drifts between early September and early October.