Though the full moon is still a week away, the square of Munsterplatz at central Basel, in northwest Switzerland, has already filled with crowds celebrating the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as Moon Festival in China.

People from the canton of Basel, other Swiss regions and even border cities of France and Germany flocked to the ancient square on Saturday to enjoy a taste of the Chinese folk festival, a tradition set up 15 years ago.

According to Xu Qin, vice president of the Basel Moon Festival Association Council, the city has started to celebrate the Moon Festival since 2009, two years after Basel became the sister city of Shanghai.

This year at the center of the square, the audience enjoyed performances brought by young acrobats, a horn quartet, and a children's choir among others. Under chestnut trees, people can sit on benches beside long tables, watching the show while enjoying traditional Chinese snacks offered in the stalls scattered around the square.

The actors of youth martial arts from the Zurich Wushu Team and the children lion dancers from Basel Sun Wu Kung Fu gained waves of cheers and applause from the audience.

In addition to the popular delicacies such as fried dumplings, spring rolls and meat buns, booths presenting Chinese calligraphy, traditional hand-weaving, Chinese fans and tea culture were also surrounded by visitors.

"The Moon Festival is one of the most important traditional festivals in China. For overseas Chinese, reunion is an ever-last topic," said Xu, also the founder and principal of Hantong Chinese School.

"At first, the people who came to participate in the Basel Moon Festival were local Chinese families and Swiss people who had worked or lived in China. Now, not only local residents, but people from Zurich and border cities in Germany and France also gathered on the square to enjoy the event," Xu said.

She said there were five to six thousand people flocking here every year before the COVID-19 pandemic. Though the number decreased to less than 1,000 during the pandemic, the Moon Festival celebration in Basel never stopped.

For 18-year-old Tony, this was his fifth time attending the celebration. "I come from Aargau canton with my mother every time. I know that the Moon Festival is an important festival for the Chinese."

"I got the information on social media, and students in Freiburg know this event," said Song, a volunteer who came from Freiburg to help the festival association council. "This event can bring more Chinese people together."

During the performance, Beat Jans, the governor of the canton of Basel-City, who was absent this year due to his working schedule, sent his message to wish everyone a happy Moon Festival.

Xu told Xinhua that it has been a tradition that the governor attends the event, delivers a speech hailing diverse cultural exchanges, and distributes mooncakes to the audience.

The celebration this year regained the grand scale before the pandemic. "When I was handing out mooncakes, I felt like there were children's little hands everywhere in front of me," Xu said with a smile.

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