To meet your ideal spouse...The trend of stealing vegetables under the moonlight of the Mid-Autumn Festival
Oct 01, 2025
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According to the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong media outlet, the custom known as 'Stealing Vegetables and Getting the Groom' takes place on Mid-Autumn Night. On this night, beautifully decorated unmarried women secretly enter the neighbor's vegetable garden under the moonlight and secretly pick up pana vegetables. This is deeply related to the local faith in marriage and fertility.
There is a Taiwanese proverb that says 'If you steal green onions, you get a good husband, and if you steal vegetables, you get a good son-in-law'
In the case of married women without children, they steal melons instead of green onions and wish for a chubby and healthy child pregnancy.
There is a similar custom in China.
One of the ethnic minorities, the Dongs celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in a unique way called 'steal of moonlit vegetables'.
The Dong people mainly live in eastern Guizhou, western Hunan, and northern Guangxi, with a population of about 3.5 million.
On Mid-Autumn Night, unmarried women secretly enter a man's vegetable garden with flower umbrellas and steal flat beans called `Moonlight Vegetables'. It is believed that this bean is considered a dewy crop sprinkled by the fairies, and that they are blessed through the fruit.
In particular, Dongjok women find beans grown in pairs, which symbolizes happy and harmonious love.
What's interesting is that they don't just steal it, they purposely say it out loud "Hey, I picked your vegetables! Come to my house and drink tea!shout ". When a vegetable garden owner hears this and scolds it, it is considered a good thing in itself.
In addition, stolen vegetables must be cooked and eaten immediately outdoors, and it is taboo to take them home.
On the other hand, unmarried men of the same tribe also go on a "stealing pumpkins" on Mid-Autumn Festival night to pray for happiness and good luck.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
