--- title: Google's New Doodle Celebrates the Mid-Autumn Festival description: Thursday's Google Doodle celebrates a festival that dates back more than a thousand years to the Tang dynasty in the 600s canonical: https://time.com/4494652/google-doodle-mid-autumn-festival/ author: Tekendra Parmar article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-15T06:58:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:44:39.288Z og:title: Google's New Doodle Celebrates Mid-Autumn Festival og:description: A moon-gazing festival that dates back more than a thousand years og:url: https://time.com/4494652/google-doodle-mid-autumn-festival/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0324f1488fe5f2d/6988a62dcf40a80686c44d42/mid-autumn-festival-2016-taiwan-hong-kong-6289721211748352-hp2x.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: mid-autumn-festival-2016-taiwan-hong-kong-6289721211748352-hp2x og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Google's New Doodle Celebrates Mid-Autumn Festival twitter:description: A moon-gazing festival that dates back more than a thousand years twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0324f1488fe5f2d/6988a62dcf40a80686c44d42/mid-autumn-festival-2016-taiwan-hong-kong-6289721211748352-hp2x.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Google's New Doodle Celebrates the Mid-Autumn Festival by [Tekendra Parmar](https://time.com/author/tekendra-parmar/) ## Tekendra Parmar Sep 15, 2016 6:58 AM UTC  Google Doodle marking the 2016 Mid-Autumn Festival celebrated around East Asia Google Doodle marking the 2016 Mid-Autumn Festival celebrated around East AsiaGoogle by [Tekendra Parmar](https://time.com/author/tekendra-parmar/) ## Tekendra Parmar Sep 15, 2016 6:58 AM UTC Thursday’s [Google Doodle](https://www.google.com/doodles/mid-autumn-festival-2016-taiwan-hong-kong) celebrates a festival that dates back more than a thousand years to the Tang dynasty in the 600s. The [Mid-Autumn Festival](http://time.com/4492595/mid-autumn-festival-lanterns-moon-mooncake/), celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month in the traditional East Asian lunar calendar, brings families together to share a meal under the fall harvest moon. The doodle illustrates the moon goddess Chang’e and her jade rabbit companion as they dance upon the moon’s surface. As legend goes, she levitated all the way to the moon after an overdose of “the elixir of life” where she was doomed to spend eternity with a lumberjack and the rabbit. **Read More:** [_Five Things to Know About the Mid-Autumn Festival_](http://time.com/4492595/mid-autumn-festival-lanterns-moon-mooncake/) In cultures around East Asia, offerings of fruits, wine and moon cakes are made to the mythical goddess to give thanks for the bountiful harvest to come. 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