Written by Gina E Cielo
Chinese students hosted a traditional Chinese Moon Festival in the cafeteria Friday, Oct. 3 in an effort to bring a little of their culture to Harding.
The third annualMoon Festivalat Harding honors China’s heritage and familiarizes American students with their customs. The Moon Festival is one of the most significant and traditional events for the Chinese.
“Americans only know Chinese culture through the media,” said Jane Chen, previous vice president of the Harding Chinese Students and Scholars Association. “We wanted to show them reality.”
In China, the Moon Festival is celebrated by eating moon cakes under the moon, carrying brightly lit lanterns, burning incense, collecting dandelion leaves and participating in fire dragon dances. These customs would be very hard to imitate at Harding, so a special program was made.The program included singing, piano, mimes, a pingpong relay race, Chinese calligraphy, kung fu and traditional Chinese dance performances. One of the songs, “Angel Fu,” was dedicated to the Americans and their learning Chinese culture.
The celebration was, in a sense, very similar to how the Chinese would celebrate in China. However, one huge difference is that in China, they would usually have a reunion with family on this day.
“Supposedly the moon is the perfect circle, representing unity and harmony,” Chen said.
Donald Liang, president of the Harding Chinese and Scholars Association, said that in China, family is a big word. Chinese families like to get together to eat the moon cakes and watch the moon together.
The point of this festival held at Harding was to emphasize not just the small family, but the big family as well.
“We thought the Moon Festival would be a time we could all get together, not just the Chinese students, but all Harding students,” said Ling Chen, a Harding student from Hong Kong.
To give the attendees a lasting impression of the Chinese culture, they were given a gift: a traditional Chinese lantern made by Liang’s family in Guang Zhou, China.
According to Chen, with lots of student help the event was a huge success. The total number of people who attended was 417. Out of 102 Chinese students, 91 participated. Liang said that the Moon Festival at Harding will continue for years to come and hopefully become a tradition.
