The Chinese culture consists of globally-occurred festival celebrations, for example, Mid-Autumn Festival. Likely Chinese New Year’s Eve, it’s a traditional festival that fulfills happiness by sending a gift to people the event’s participants love, like family, friends, and relatives. The ritual has occurred for years through numerous themed activities, including lighting lanterns, gathering with dearest ones, and cutting the delicious yet iconic mooncakes while staring at the full moon.
Meaningful Gift Ideas for Mid-Autumn
Named the national festival, there’s no way to skip the Mid-Autumn celebration, even though the world holds us due to the lockdown. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate one of the meaningful festivals in the Chinese culture by gift-giving heartwarming gifts. If you’re searching for something heartfelt, traditional, but up to the current trend without going far from the original festival theme, check out meaningful gift ideas for the Mid-Autumn celebration this year! Here are what we suggest to you.
1. Mooncakes
A mooncake is a must-have food for celebrating Mid-Autumn. As mentioned above, biting the delicious piece of a mooncake is overwhelmingly exciting while staring at the full moon, the Mind-Autumn’s purpose. People usually give a mooncake to their family, friends, and relatives. Mooncake is a classic gift for Chinese celebrations that never gets old, likely Chinese New Year hampers.
What makes mooncakes delicious is the filling. From the classic mooncake flavors to the freshly-updated ones by considering current trends in the culinary industry, a piece of a mooncake is what people go for to spice up the celebration.
There is a wide range of options you can consider buying. If you’re into the classic ones, a mooncake with bean paste, seed paste, or lotus salted egg mooncake will make the safest option. On the contrary, you can also choose some Instagram-worthy creative flavors, such as green tea, chocolate, or even ice cream!
2. Fresh-picked Hairy Crab
Do you know that Autumn is the best season to eat seafood, specifically, a fresh hairy crab? With that in mind, always include freshly-picked hairy crab in your gift-giving checklist! The mid-Autumn festival story related to tasty food, including mooncakes and hairy crabs. It’s a tradition where Asian families enjoy a meal together during this precious time that only happens once a year, so don’t miss out!
There are a few reasons why hairy crabs belong as a must-have item for celebrating the Autumn season in Chinese culture. The sea species’ tender meat, nutrition per kilogram of crab, and the delicious taste named a delicacy.
3. Ice Cream
“I Scream for an Ice Cream” Nothing can beat the happiness of enjoying ice cream for many kinds of celebrations. Despite not an obligation to include ice cream in your Autumn season gift ideas, surely no one could deny the fresh taste an ice cream gives on every lick.
Since the intention is for the Autumn season festival, you can play with the ice cream’s flavors. To relate it to the Mid-Autumn festival story, it’s always acceptable to send ice cream mooncakes that appear like this traditional treat for the Autumn festival in the Chinese culture. Most of them, which you can purchase through online delivery, appear in cute characters that perhaps would make any children fall in love, including Lotus Flower and the famous Jade Rabbit.
4. Fruit Basket
Besides the iconic mooncakes that can’t go wrong to unite families while gazing at the full moon during Autumn Festival, there’s also a fruit basket, a part of the must-have essential items for this glorious celebration. Fruit baskets are great to be consumed while enjoying the tasty yet delicious mooncakes among family members. For Autumn Festival, fruits like grapes, pomegranates, and pomelos are usually what people seek to be wrapped as a thoughtful gift for their family, friends, and relatives.
Not only happens as common fruits for the celebration, but they also contain some beliefs, obviously based on Chinese culture that you might never hear of before. Consuming pomelos is believed will bring good luck since the fruit stands for prosperity. Therefore, when it comes to Autumn Festival gift-giving, make sure to only include the fruits listed above since Chinese people believe a fruit basket matters apart from the average price of each creation.
5. Tea
Enjoying a traditional lotus paste in a mooncake won’t be completed without tea. Yes, tea is regarded as a healthy drink in Chinese belief, and also helps to detox and freshen the body after tasting a heavy meal. As mooncakes sometimes have a strong flavor, it’s necessary to ease the taste where a cup of tea is very useful for this. With that in mind, of course, a tea set is highly suggested for your Mid-Autumn celebration gift idea.
Further, tea is also beneficial for the unity of families. There’s no way to be inappropriate while sending this since everyone loves tea and it’s great to welcome guests. Find it difficult to get the best one for MAM? An oolong or black tea is the safest option on the market.
6. Organic Rice and Oils
Earl grey lotus makes mooncakes taste more festival-themed. However, celebrating Autumn Festival is not only limited to enjoying family togetherness with a piece of delicious yet traditional mooncake or a relaxing tea. It goes further than that. Therefore, your gift-giving options are spacious. You can also give daily consumption food, like rice and oils.
Rice and oils are the most common daily consumption for Asian families, including Chinese people. Since the number of people who concious of a healthy lifestyle increases every day, organic rice and oils are becoming pretty popular for gift ideas. It’s always appropriate and acceptable!
7. Abalone
Chinese cuisine usually uses seafood as its ingredient. Besides the rich nutrition of hairy crabs, abalone is also considered the most valuable sea fish in China. Abalone is rich in protein, low in fat, and most importantly, it’s full of nutrition!
Abalone always tastes fresh. It’s great to be added to various creations of Chinese cuisine. One thing to note, abalone contains a strong flavor. Want to send ones? A freshly-picked abalone in a jar is what you have to catch.
