The Week Around the Autumn Equinox: What China, Japan and Korea Are Each Marking
Two days ago, in a Japanese supermarket, I saw a shelf that is not usually there. The sign read “お彼岸”, and the shelf was stacked with red-bean rice dumplings. An older woman at the checkout picked up two boxes without pausing and murmured: “For Dad.”
That was the moment I realised autumn had reached a particular date. Only after I got home and looked it up did I learn that Japan’s “Higan” is a fixed window that opens twice a year: three days either side of the spring equinox and the autumn equinox, seven days in all. In 2026 the autumn Higan runs from 20 to 26 September, and the day in the middle — the “chū-nichi” — is the autumn equinox itself, 23 September.
Where the word comes from
“Higan” pairs with “shigan”: this shore is the world we live in, where birth and death repeat and troubles never stop; the far shore is the Buddha’s world. The word translates the Sanskrit pāramitā, “gone to the other shore”, and the Pure Land school glosses it as crossing from this shore to that one.
So why the equinoxes? The old explanation is lovely: on those two days the sun rises due east and sets due west, and Amida Buddha’s Pure Land lies in the west. When the setting sun drops dead ahead, a person facing it with palms together is, quite literally, looking towards that shore. The practice is called the contemplation of the sun. Higan assemblies can be traced to the Heian period, and only in the Edo period did they settle into something ordinary households did every year.
A trap I have fallen into myself: the dumplings laid out in spring are called botan-mochi, and the ones in autumn are called ohagi — but they are the same thing, glutinous rice wrapped in red-bean paste. Spring borrows the name of the peony, autumn the name of the bush clover. One sweet, two names: half elegance, half season.
The same week, Koreans cut grave grass and Chinese families honour the moon
Further west, Korea’s Chuseok (추석) falls on 25 September, with 24–26 September off and four days in total including Sunday. The day before Chuseok, a family’s job is beolcho (벌초) — clearing the grass from the family graves. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture records the rule: if the grave grass is not cleared before Chuseok, it is taken as a failure of duty by the descendants; on Jeju the task has its own name, sobun, and the whole family gathers to do it.
In China, moon worship actually predates Mid-Autumn as a festival. According to Beijing News, drawing on records in the Rites of Zhou, the Zhou dynasty already had rites of “welcoming the cold on Mid-Autumn night” and “worshipping the moon at the western suburb at the autumn equinox” — moon worship belonged to the equinox before it moved to the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month. That Zhou-era “Mid-Autumn” meant the middle stretch of autumn, not today’s festival date.
Three practices, one gesture
| Japan | Korea | China | |
|---|---|---|---|
| When | Three days either side of the equinox (20–26 Sept) | The fifteenth of the eighth lunar month (25 Sept) and around it | The fifteenth of the eighth lunar month (25 Sept) |
| What is done | Visit graves, make offerings, attend Higan assemblies | Clear grave grass, hold the rite, visit graves | Honour the moon, gather the family, eat mooncakes |
| Offered to | Ancestors and the dead | Ancestors | The moon deity and the family |
Three languages that do not overlap, three calendars with their own fine print, and in this one week the same thing points in the same direction: on the most balanced day of the year, gather the people you should see. Japan and Korea mostly do it at the grave, with offerings, sweeping and a word of reassurance; China mostly does it under the moon, with fruit laid out and the family sitting together. One looks down and speaks; the other looks up at the moon.
If every year around this time you feel an inexplicable emptiness — many people do. When it is hard to say out loud, write the thought down, ask through the real flow on 占卜迷指, take the corresponding chart and reading, and export it to keep. Some things do not need an answer; they need a gesture that lets you set them down.
Disclaimer: This article covers traditional culture and folklore and is intended for entertainment and self-reflection only. It is not medical, psychological, investment, legal or marriage advice. Do not submit ID numbers, detailed addresses or other sensitive personal information. If you experience persistent insomnia, anxiety or physical discomfort, please see a doctor or a qualified professional.
Sources
- Jodo-shu official site, “Spring Higan assembly” (higan = the far shore; this shore and that shore defined): https://jodo.or.jp/event/spr-higane/
- Hasegawa, “When is the 2026 autumn Higan?” (autumn Higan 20–26 September 2026, centre day 23 September, the equinox): https://www.hasegawa.jp/blogs/kuyou/ohigan-meaning
- Nippon Kodo, “Autumn Higan”: https://www.nipponkodo.co.jp/inori/higan
- Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, “추석” (the ancestral rite and grave visits): https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0057862
- Korean regional culture archive, “The grave-clearing holiday that survives only on Jeju” (clearing grave grass before Chuseok; Jeju’s “sobun”): https://ncms.nculture.org/ceremonial/story/12900
- Beijing News, “The moon, waxing and waning, seen as the deity of rebirth and harvest” (citing the Rites of Zhou on welcoming the cold and worshipping the moon): https://m.bjnews.com.cn/detail/1759727025168159.html