Mid-Autumn is eight days away. When it comes to worshipping the moon — what to set out, what time to start, who may not take part — the old rules are quite clear: besides mooncakes there should be one large “reunion cake”, pomelo belongs on the offering table, and the line “men don’t worship the moon” has a definite source.
A Japanese supermarket puts up a “Higan” shelf, Koreans rush to clear the grass from family graves before Chuseok, and Chinese families start choosing mooncakes. Three unrelated scenes, and one autumn timetable shared across East Asia.
On 22 September this year, Japan gets a day off out of nowhere: by law, a day sandwiched between two public holidays automatically becomes a holiday. In the very same week, China, Korea and the Taiwan region of China all mark the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month. One “free” day off leads to the calendar East Asia shares.
