On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival (15th day of the 8th lunar month), when the Moon is fullest, Chinese families set up an outdoor table facing south toward the celestial body, where round and pale foods are arranged—an image of the Moon and Chang'e. This is not a sequential meal: it is a SYMMETRICAL altar where each offering is a gift to the goddess before being shared. Round shapes (cakes, fruits, roots), osmanthus fragrance, and wine poured for the Moon form the whole. The structure is not appetizer/main/dessert but altar → libation → sharing.

Fragrant osmanthus is the scented soul of this table: it is said that on the Moon grows a cinnamon laurel tree (桂树) which the woodcutter Wu Gang endlessly chops. Its tiny, golden-yellow flower perfumes the wine, honey, and cakes of Mid-Autumn. It is the thread linking each recipe of Chang'e to her lunar palace.