Happy Mid Autumn Festival, Japan!

The present Doodle commemorates the Japanese Mid Autumn Festival, otherwise called Otsukimi (お月見), which means “moon viewing.”

Dedicated to the festival of the harvest moon–the first full moon after the fall equinox–the occasion gives a chance to value the year’s collect and consider the section of the seasons.

The Japanese tradition of Otsukimi is said to go back well longer than a thousand years to the nation’s Nara time of the 700s. During the Heian time frame that followed, Japan’s aristocrats were known to celebrate with happy banquets, boat outings, and moonlit poetry recitals.

The occasion picked up prevalence throughout the centuries and today is commended the country over.

One way many honor Otsukimi is to design their homes with pampas grass or susuki, an image of the period’s abundance.

Custom likewise requires the planning of special dishes like tsukimi-dango, scaled down rice dumplings (a staple food in Japan) that take after the full moon and are rumored to bring wellbeing and good fortune.