Philadelphia’s Chinatown will celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival on Saturday, Sept. 26, with lion dances, Chinese opera, martial arts demonstrations, carnival games and a lantern parade.
The 31st annual street festival is scheduled to run from noon-8 p.m. along 10th Street near the Chinatown Friendship Gate. Families can make art for free, play pay-as-you-go carnival games and watch the mooncake-eating contest. Organizers have not listed a general admission charge.
Asian Americans United created the festival in 1996 with local middle school students. It offered Chinese Americans in Philadelphia a way to celebrate the holiday when they could not travel to China to be with family.
Today, more than 300 high school volunteers participate. Youth and young adults spend months helping coordinate the performances, games, art activities, fundraising and volunteer operations.
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Organizers say approximately 7,500 people attend each year. Chinatown restaurants donate food, artists perform and local businesses support the celebration.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is traditionally a time for families to gather and give thanks under the harvest moon. Lanterns, one of the holiday’s most recognizable symbols, will be carried through Chinatown during the evening parade.
The festival carries added significance as residents and community groups work to preserve Chinatown, which was named one of Philadelphia’s most endangered historic places in 2023.
31st annual Chinatown Mid-Autumn Festival
Sept. 26 | Noon-8 p.m.
Chinatown
10th Street near the Friendship Gate
Philadelphia, PA 19107
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