Explainer | Why Taiwan women celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival by stealing neighbours’ spring onions
Ancient customs rooted in marriage and fertility take place across China, sees men and women rummage about in vegetable patches
As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, an ancient and quirky tradition has resurfaced in Taiwan, where unmarried women sneak into neighbours’ gardens to steal vegetables, believing this will help them find their ideal husband.
Known as “stealing vegetables for a groom,” or tou cai qiu lang in Chinese, it takes place on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
During the night, unmarried women, often beautifully adorned, step out under the moonlight and sneak into a neighbour’s vegetable patch.
But their goal is not a midnight snack; instead, they secretly pick spring onions or other vegetables as part of a symbolic ritual to wish for an ideal husband.
The act is deeply rooted in local beliefs about marriage and fertility.
As an old Taiwanese proverb says: “Steal a spring onion, marry a good husband; steal a vegetable, get a good son-in-law.”
For married women who have not yet had children, the tradition takes a unique turn: instead of stealing spring onions, they aim to steal a melon, hoping to be blessed with a healthy, chubby baby in the coming year.
The custom also has a romantic equivalent in mainland China.