Mayor Zohran Mamdani hosted a Mid-Autumn Festival celebration at Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence. The event continues a City Hall custom of marking the cultural and religious observances of the city’s many communities.
The Mayor’s Office listed the celebration among its September 2026 events and published a video of the gathering and the remarks delivered there.
The festival is a traditional Chinese holiday tied to the autumn harvest, family reunions and the full moon. Similar occasions are observed elsewhere in Asia, including Chuseok in Korea and Tsukimi in Japan, according to a City Council description.
The reception is part of a wider pattern in the Mamdani administration’s use of Gracie Mansion. In testimony to the City Council in September, administration officials cited the Mid-Autumn Festival and an African Heritage Reception as examples of cultural events planned at the residence.
They said community liaison teams in the Mayor’s Office work with groups across all five boroughs to connect communities with city government.
The tradition predates the current administration. Former Mayor Eric Adams hosted a Mid-Autumn Moon Festival reception in 2025 and described it in terms of family, harvest and community.
The City Council has also acknowledged the holiday in past years, including a 2020 statement from then-Speaker Corey Johnson.
The celebration reflects the size of the city’s Asian communities. The Department of City Planning’s The Newest New Yorkers 2026 report found that people born in Asia make up roughly 30 percent of New York’s foreign-born population.
Last night, the People’s House was filled with joy and abundance as we celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival under the glow of the Harvest Moon.
From Chinese mooncakes to Korean songpyeon and Vietnamese lanterns, East and South Asian communities bring the depth, breadth, and… pic.twitter.com/TOVGS3vICj
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) October 1, 2026
The report points to large communities with roots in China, Bangladesh, India, Korea and the Philippines. It puts the Bangladeshi-born population at about 110,800, a substantial increase over the previous decade.
The schools show a similar picture. Asian and Pacific Islander students made up 19 percent of public-school enrollment in the 2025–26 school year, according to NYC Public Schools.
Heritage events like this one serve two purposes. They recognize cultural traditions, and they give City Hall a chance to engage directly with the communities that observe them.
As Asian New Yorkers have grown in number, holidays once centered in particular immigrant neighborhoods have become part of the city’s broader civic calendar.
