As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, people across China are exchanging mooncakes. The celebration falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar and starts this year on Sept. 24. /VCG Photo

Shaped like a round moon, these sweet delicacies come with traditional fillings like “five kernels”, a mixture of five different nuts. However, hotels, restaurants and bakeries that make holiday pastries up the ante with more daring flavors and shapes that continue to push the boundaries of innovation. /VCG Photo

This year, mooncakes come in newfangled flavors that range from mochi-style ice cream and raspberry molten lava, to including ingredients such as crawfish and cubilose. Specialty mooncakes in various shapes from crabs to Peppa Pig are also very popular. /VCG Photo

Every year, Starbucks Coffee releases gift boxes of mooncakes especially for Chinese customers with cheesecake, coffee and hazelnut flavors. /VCG Photo

Mooncakes are believed to have originated from Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) revolutionaries, who are said to have used them to pass secret messages to each other. Now the pastry is associated with family reunions people enjoy eating them while admiring the moon with relatives on the Mid-Autumn Festival. /Photo via Starbuck's China Weibo account