Seasonal exhibition · Autumn 2026

The autumn table

从立秋到霜降，再走向世界各地的收获餐桌。Six solar terms, one full moon, and harvest tables from Japan to Mexico.Begin the season

Persimmons hung to dry into hoshigaki, Japan · Tachikoma805 · CC BY 3.0

One season, many climates

Autumn is not one flavor. It is a change in pace.

China’s solar terms offer the exhibition its first rhythm: cooling air, ripening grain, white dew, cold dew, and first frost. Food makes those changes tangible.

From there, the route widens. A mushroom, a slow braise, a roasted nut, or a piece of fruit can tell us how different places notice the same turn of year.

The almanac

Six solar terms, six reasons to set the table.

China’s farming calendar divides the year into twenty-four solar terms of about fifteen days each. In 2016 UNESCO inscribed them on its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

立秋LìqiūStart of AutumnAround 7 August
Braised meat to “put on autumn weight”, and watermelon to “bite the autumn”.
处暑ChǔshǔEnd of HeatAround 23 August
Duck, in many northern households, as the last heat breaks.
白露BáilùWhite DewAround 7 September
Longan in Fuzhou; clear sweet soups against the dry air.
秋分QiūfēnAutumn EquinoxAround 23 September
Harvest celebrations, and in Lingnan a soup of wild autumn greens.
寒露HánlùCold DewAround 8 October
Chrysanthemums open and freshwater crabs are at their fullest.
霜降ShuāngjiàngFrost’s DescentAround 23 October
Persimmons, eaten fresh or dried for winter.

Red-braised pork, Shanghai style N509FZ · CC BY-SA 4.0

China · Liqiu

After summer, the table puts on autumn weight.

Liqiu, the Start of Autumn, arrives in early August while the heat has barely loosened. In northern China, families mark it with tiē qiū biāo, “putting on autumn fat”: braised pork and other rich dishes that make up for a long summer of light eating.Find braised pork recipes

Papaya and white fungus sweet soup, Singapore RM Bulseco · CC BY 2.0

China · Bailu

Fruit and white fungus soften the season’s dry air.

White Dew signals cooler mornings. Across Chinese dessert traditions, pear or papaya joins tremella, red dates, lotus seeds, or rock sugar in clear sweet soups—a gentle response to a season increasingly described as dry.Explore pear dishes

Steamed hairy crab, Shanghai Kentaro Iemoto · CC BY-SA 2.0

China · Hanlu

Chrysanthemums open, and crabs come to the table.

By Cold Dew, chrysanthemum shows fill parks and temple courtyards, and the freshwater crabs of the lower Yangtze are at their best. Holding a crab claw while admiring chrysanthemums has been a scholar’s pleasure for centuries, with ginger and vinegar to balance the rich roe.Find crab recipes

Sugar-roasted chestnuts Fumikas Sagisavas · CC0

Beijing · Late autumn

Chestnuts warm the street before they reach the kitchen.

By Cold Dew, paper bags of sugar-roasted chestnuts become hand warmers as much as snacks. Their glossy shells and toasted sweetness also move indoors—into braises, rice, poultry, and cakes built for longer evenings.Search chestnut recipes

Dried persimmons for sale in Wandong Village, Huizhou Mx. Granger · CC0

China · Shuangjiang

Persimmon holds the last orange light of the season.

At Frost’s Descent the persimmons are ripe, and a folk saying promises that eating one will keep colds away all winter. Fruit that cannot be eaten fresh is peeled and dried into shìbǐng, pressed flat until a white bloom of natural sugar forms on the skin.Follow persimmon

The fifteenth night of the eighth month

One moon, two tables.

The Mid-Autumn Festival in China and Chuseok in Korea fall on the same full moon, usually in September or early October. Both bring families home, and both are eaten as much as they are celebrated.

Lotus-seed paste mooncake with salted egg yolk Dinkun Chen · CC BY-SA 4.0

Songpyeon, Korean half-moon rice cakes wizdata · CC0

“Seasonality is a way of paying attention: to weather, markets, memory, and what tastes complete right now.”

Harvest tables around the world

The same turn of year, read in other kitchens.

Autumn arrives with frost in some places and with rain, new wine or remembrance in others. Five tables, from September to November.

Matsutake rice with ginkgo nuts Lombroso · CC0

JapanSeptember–November

Aki no mikaku, the tastes of autumn

Japan has a phrase for the season’s flavours: aki no mikaku. Matsutake perfumes rice and clear soup, grilled sanma arrives with grated daikon, and ginkgo nuts and chestnuts turn up everywhere.

Enter the Japan exhibition

Federweißer and Zwiebelkuchen Illustratedjc · CC BY-SA 4.0

GermanySeptember–October

New wine and onion tart

In German wine regions, the first partly fermented wine of the harvest, Federweißer, is sold for just a few weeks. It is drunk young and cloudy, almost always with warm Zwiebelkuchen, an onion and bacon tart.

White truffles from Alba Kent Wang · CC BY-SA 2.0

Italy · PiedmontOctober–December

The white truffle of Alba

Truffle hunters and their dogs search the oak and poplar woods around Alba, whose white truffle fair runs through the autumn. The truffle is never cooked: it is shaved raw over buttered tajarin or a fried egg.

Pan de muerto on an ofrenda JMndz · CC BY-SA 4.0

Mexico1–2 November

Bread for the Day of the Dead

For Día de Muertos, families build ofrendas for those who have died, with marigolds, photographs and favourite foods. Pan de muerto, scented with orange blossom and topped with dough shaped like bones, is placed on the altar and shared.

Pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, New Orleans Infrogmation of New Orleans · CC BY-SA 4.0

Canada · United StatesOctober–November

A harvest pie

Canada gives thanks for the harvest on the second Monday of October, the United States on the fourth Thursday of November. Pumpkin pie, spiced with cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, closes both tables.

Did you know?

Since 2018, China has celebrated its Farmers’ Harvest Festival on the Autumn Equinox.
Matsutake cannot be farmed. It grows only with the roots of living pine trees, which is why it is foraged and costly.
South of the equator, autumn runs from March to May, so Argentina and Chile celebrate their grape harvest in March.

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