🇨🇳How does China mark Harvest and Gratitude?

中国农民丰收节

Local date

September 23, 2026

When is it?

Autumnal Equinox in the lunar calendar (established with approval from the State Council)

Mainland China's Farmers' Harvest Festival is new: approved by the Party Central Committee and confirmed by the State Council, from 2018 the autumn equinox in the lunar calendar became a festival for farmers themselves — the first national-level festival created specifically for them. The equinox was chosen because it is where the autumn harvest, autumn ploughing and autumn sowing meet. It is not a day off for all citizens but a policy-initiated occasion whose theme is set each year by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs — the opposite origin story to the four harvest festivals here that grew from below. This is a very new festival: created in 2018 and set on the autumn equinox, it is the first nationwide festival in China established specifically for farmers. The choice of date states the design intent by itself — it does not follow the lunar calendar or the week, but is pinned to the autumn equinox among the twenty-four solar terms, so that the whole country, north and south alike, lands inside its own harvest rhythm. How it is marked is left to each locality, so the content of the same day differs widely between provinces.