Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2018 September 24

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September 24

Mid-Autumn Festival

Do Americans actually call it "Mid-Fall Festival"? I'm wondering why it doesn't have many Google results. --2A0A:A543:8C1E:0:18F2:55:3092:678 (talk) 22:13, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

There's no such festival of any degree of cultural prominence in the United States. We have Halloween and Thanksgiving... AnonMoos (talk) 01:32, 25 September 2018 (UTC)

Oktoberfest celebrations claims a number of individual cities where Oktoberfests are held. But it's not really a big thing in America. Aside from Halloween and Thanksgiving, the most obvious harvest-season celebrations would probably be the various State Fairs. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:38, 25 September 2018 (UTC)

In the UK (by contrast), Harvest Festival is a cultural norm widely observed as a Church-sanctioned and/or hosted event. Neopagans have revived and/or reinvented a pre-Christian, Celtic-culture form of it called Mabon (see under Wheel of the Year), which is observed by neopagans elsewhere in the Northern hemisphere at this time, including in the US. (In the Southern hemisphere, where it is the Spring equinox, the spring counterpart Ostara would be observed at this time.) {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.221.81.75 (talk) 08:10, 25 September 2018 (UTC)

For those who've missed the point completely, Mid-autumn Festival is a Chinese/Vietnamese festival, which is very much a thing in some parts of the US. "(Mid-autumn) Moon Festival" is one term in use. [1] Henry^Flower 09:59, 25 September 2018 (UTC)

How popular is it in the Netherlands? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:26, 25 September 2018 (UTC)

Very, I would expect Chinese people in the Netherlands. 92.31.140.53 (talk) 13:00, 25 September 2018 (UTC)

You have no doubt noticed the harvest moon - the mid-autumn festival is on now. The harvest moon is the full moon after the autumnal equinox, thus 23 September to 21 October. The mid-autumn festival varies between 10 September and 8 October. See if you can puzzle out the reason for the difference - I'll tell you later. 92.31.140.53 (talk) 14:24, 25 September 2018 (UTC)

Apparently, Americans do call it "Mid-Autumn Festival", in New York City and in Philadelphia at any rate. Alansplodge (talk) 15:47, 26 September 2018 (UTC)

I was just thinking about the usage of the word "autumn" in American English since the season is usually called "fall" in America. --2001:16B8:31EC:800:8509:A61E:7792:2D90 (talk) 19:18, 29 September 2018 (UTC)