Boston’s 50th Chinatown August Moon Festival!

Two stages with live performances of Chinese dance, music, and martial arts.

Each year, CCBA organizes Chinatown’s August Moon Festival. Now in its 50th year, Chinatown’s August Moon Festival is a day-long event filled with cultural performances as well as Chinese calligraphy, arts and crafts, and various vendors of Chinese food and merchandise. The Festival not only celebrates an important Chinese holiday, but also serves to attract people of all backgrounds to Boston’s Chinatown, to highlight what the CCBA and Chinatown’s offerings, and to educate people on Chinese culture, such as lion dancing, Chinese opera, music and folk dance, and martial arts. The event attracts thousands of spectators from the greater Boston area and beyond to Boston’s Chinatown each year.

Although there is much Chinese lore concerning the August Moon Festival, this Chinese holiday, which traces its origins back to 771 BCE, historically celebrated the annual harvest of rice and wheat on a night of the full moon. Today, the August Moon Festival in Chinese culture is very similar to American Thanksgiving. The fundamental concepts the August Moon Festival celebrates are the gathering of friends and family, thanksgiving, and prayers for the future.