Otsukimi

alternative O-Tsukimi · alternative Tsukimi

1. A moon-viewing festival in the fall (autumn).

   When the harvest moon arrives, people gather for the Otsukimi festival to celebrate with foods that remind us of the moon, like chestnuts, sunny-side up eggs, and dumplings.

   2021, Julia Momosé, Emma Janzen, The Way of the Cocktail: Japanese Traditions, Techniques, and Recipes, →ISBN, page 228

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   I was always interested to see which of the Japanese customs belonged to the Palace and which to the world outside the Palace. O Bon, or the Festival of the Dead in midsummer, was a festival of the people, as also was Otsukimi, or Moon-Viewing. I have delightful memories of a party in the country near Tokyo to which we went when the September moon was full.

   1952, Elizabeth Gray Vining, Windows for the Crown Prince, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., →OCLC, page 230

   The fact that Japanese people have gazed at and felt affection for the Moon since ancient times is also apparent from folklore, such as the story of the Moon Rabbit. And although Otsukimi (moon-viewing) festivals seem to have originated in China, the custom of appreciating the Moon is said to have existed in Japan since the Jōmon period (approximately 14,000 BC to 400 BC).

   2011, Kenji Ishikawa, Kiyoshi Kawabata, The Manga Guide to the Universe, San Francisco: No Starch Press, →ISBN, page 22