Full moon and reunions

Mooncakes, sweet pastries stuffed with different delicious fillings, are the main attractions during the Mid-Autumn Festival - especially for the younger set. Provided to China Daily

Colorful clay figurines of Grandpa Rabbit, tu yeye, are traditional gifts during Mid-Autumn Festival, like this selection at a shop in Furong Street in Jinan, capital city of Shandong province. Myth has it that he was the companion of the Lady of the Moon, Chang'e, and was sent down to earth to help the people in hard times and natural disasters. Gong Hui / for China Daily

The Autumn Moon rounds up sons and daughters working away who head home during this important festival on the Chinese almanac. Zhou Wenting finds out how these wandering prodigals strengthen the ties that bind with mooncakes and visits to family and friends.

Just like the countless Chinese who work in cities far away from home, Gan Aishan seldom calls home, and he visits even less. But this week, Gan bought a train ticket home for the Mid-Autumn Festival, so he could enjoy the harvest moon festival at home. "The piles of mooncakes in the supermarkets made me homesick. I woke up one day with my pillow wet with tears, so I decided to go home," says Gan, 30, who works as a salesman in Beijing. He is from Guiping of Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. He has been away from home for 14 years, and at one time, he even lost contact with his family for about three years. "Distance makes strangers of each other, but ultimately, home still calls out to people like me," Gan says. It's getting harder and harder to keep in close contact, and the ties that bind are being frayed by changing circumstances. Many children no longer live with their parents after marriage, and more and more fresh graduates are leaving home to work in cities where there are better job opportunities. And as they settle, they soon cultivate completely new circles of friends and a support system away from the older networks at home.

That's why it is so important to re-establish the home bonds, and social study and folk experts agree that the Mid-Autumn Festival on the 15th day of the eight lunar month is the perfect opportunity to freshen these ties.

"This day is when people think of their homes and want to reconnect, even if it's only a phone call or a video chat, no matter how far away they live from home, or how the family structure has evolved," observes Wan Jianzhong, director of the Institute of Folklore and Cultural Anthropology at the Beijing Normal University.