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Under the Same Moon: AAMHP acknowledges Mid-Autumn traditions across Asia
AWARENESS STATEMENT
For Immediate Release
25 September 2026
Across many parts of Asia, families and communities are gathering at this time of year under the autumn moon.
The festivals have different names, histories and customs. In Chinese communities, the Mid-Autumn Festival is traditionally associated with family reunion, mooncakes and lanterns. In Vietnam, Tết Trung Thu carries its own traditions, with mooncakes, lanterns and a particularly strong place for children and family celebration. In Korea, Chuseok is one of the year’s most important holidays, bringing families together around harvest, gratitude and remembrance of ancestors. Japan’s Tsukimi follows a distinct tradition of autumn moon viewing and thanksgiving for the harvest.
They should not be collapsed into one story. But across these different traditions sits a beautiful recurring idea: we stop, we look up, and we remember the people to whom we belong.
For the Australian Association of Mental Health Practitioners, that idea feels particularly worth acknowledging.
Family, belonging and the places we call home
Festivals are often described through their most visible traditions the lanterns, food, mooncakes, rice cakes, gatherings and celebrations. Yet beneath those traditions sits something psychologically important. They create moments of belonging.
They remind us that human wellbeing has always been relational. Long before we developed contemporary language about social connection, loneliness, community wellbeing or protective factors for mental health, cultures developed rituals that repeatedly brought people back to family, community, memory and place.
AAMHP Chair Shane Warren said these traditions offer an important reminder that wellbeing is shaped not only by what happens within an individual, but by the relationships and stories that surround them.
“There is something wonderfully simple about the image at the heart of these celebrations: people separated by streets, cities or even countries looking towards the same moon. It reminds us that belonging does not always depend upon being physically in the same place. Family, culture and memory can continue connecting us across extraordinary distances.” [Shane Warren]
In Australia, that resonance is particularly significant.
Our communities include people whose family stories stretch across the Asia-Pacific and around the world. For some, tonight means a crowded family table. For others, it means a telephone or video call across borders. For others still, it may bring memories of parents and grandparents, childhood celebrations, places once called home, or people who are no longer able to sit at the table.
Celebration and longing can comfortably occupy the same evening.
Tradition carries memory
The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month and has long been associated with the harvest and family reunion. In Hong Kong today, those traditions remain visible through family gatherings, mooncakes, lanterns and public celebrations. In China Mainland people travel long and far to be with family.
Korea’s Chuseok falls on the same lunar date and remains deeply connected with harvest gratitude, family gatherings and remembrance of ancestors. Vietnam’s Tết Trung Thu has developed its own distinctive traditions around family, children, lanterns and sharing food, while Japanese Tsukimi centres more explicitly on contemplating the autumn moon and giving thanks for the season’s harvest.
The similarities matter.
So do the differences.
Respecting culture means allowing traditions to retain their own names and meanings rather than treating Asia as though it were a single cultural experience.
AAMHP Secretary Susan Sandy said cultural traditions can provide important anchors for identity and connection.
“Rituals give families ways of saying things that sometimes do not need to be spoken directly: you belong here; we remember where we came from; we are grateful to be together; those who came before us still matter. Those messages can carry enormous emotional value across generations.” [Susan Sandy]
“For people living far from their country of birth or away from extended family, cultural celebrations can also hold a mixture of joy and homesickness. Good mental-health practice leaves room for both.” Shane Warren added
Making room at the table
There is perhaps another lesson contained within these traditions. A table has meaning because people are invited to it. Community has meaning because people experience themselves as belonging within it.
For practitioners working within multicultural Australia, cultural responsiveness therefore requires more than knowing the names of festivals or putting celebratory graphics on social media. It requires curiosity about how culture, migration, language, family obligations, faith, tradition and intergenerational expectations shape the individual sitting in front of us.
Two people celebrating the same festival may experience it entirely differently...
One may feel deeply connected to family.
Another may be grieving someone absent.
One may enthusiastically continue traditions handed down through generations.
Another may be negotiating which traditions they want to carry forward and which they want to change.
Someone else may simply be delighted that there are mooncakes.
There is room for all of that.
Under one moon
This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on 25 September 2026, as does the central day of Korea’s Chuseok celebrations. Across communities throughout Australia and the wider Asia-Pacific, homes, temples, public spaces and family tables will mark the season in different ways.
AAMHP extends its warm wishes to everyone celebrating.
May there be good food.
May there be laughter.
May there be stories told again for the hundredth time.
May those who are far from home feel connected to it.
May those missing someone find comfort in memory.
And may all of us,m whatever our cultural traditions, take something from the ancient invitation contained in these celebrations: look up for a moment, notice who shares your world, and remember that none of us thrives entirely alone.
中秋节快乐 | 中秋節快樂
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From the Australian Association of Mental Health Practitioners, we wish our members, colleagues, families and communities celebrating across Australia and throughout Asia a peaceful and joyful festival.
Media Contact:
Shane Warren, Chair
Susan Sandy, Secretary
Philip Armstrong, CEO
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