Mid-Autumn Festival this year is particularly meaningful given what China has gone through and with the whole world still suffering from the COVID-19 outbreak.

With cities locked down and people asked to limit travels to curb the spread of the virus, many have not been able to go home for more than half a year. For many who work in big cities, this eight-day holiday is their first time home in a while. 

Ye, who works as a news editor in Beijing, was not able to go back to her home in Wuhan since the outbreak started. "I attach great importance to the Mid-Autumn Festival, especially this year," she said. Ye's parents were in Wuhan when the city was locked down.

She can only chat vie video with her parents during that time, and that's when it hits her: "I envy people who go home every day."

Ye plans to go back to Wuhan using her annual vacation, at the end of 2020, and this will be her first time back home for the whole year.

Livia, who also stayed in Beijing during the outbreak, on the other hand, is looking forward to her parents' visit. 

"It's been a few years since I left my hometown to work here, and I don't really feel so festive being alone," Livia shared, adding "my parents will come and visit me here in Beijing."

"2020 taught me to cherish every day, not just in festivals like the Mid-Autumn Festival, but every day," she said.

For a local family, family union is not that difficult.

Zhang, a primary school teacher, prepared poems on the Mid-Autumn Festival for her class to recite and picked her older daughter up at kindergarten for a family dinner.

This weekend, her aunts and their families are all coming to her parents' home to have dinner together. "It's the weekends of our family, not because it's the holiday. We do that, once in a while," Zhang told CGTN.

Zhang who has a second daughter is very satisfied with her life now, and the outbreak of COVID-19 makes her cherish even more about what she has right now.

This year's Mid-Autumn Festival, against the backdrop of a global pandemic, has given people a deeper understanding of reunion. Whether the family gets together on this day or not, we all understand the importance of cherishing each day.