Tech celebrates Mid-Autumn Fest

Every autumn, there is a time when the moon shines brightest and is closest to Earth. At this unique time, the Asian community celebrates the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, which is typically around the beginning of October. It is a celebration of the end of the summer harvest and is principally a reunion of friends and family for food, especially moon cakes, and fun.

Through the joint efforts of the Chinese Student Association (CSA) and the Taiwanese American Student Association (TASA), this year's Mid-Autumn Festival at Tech was held the night of Oct. 6 at the Instructional Center Field on West Campus.

Tech's Vietnamese Student Association joined with other local colleges to sponsor another Mid-Autumn Festival, which took place off campus at the Atlanta Chinese Cultural Center Oct. 7.

Tech's Mid-Autumn Festival yielded a turnout of about 100 people. Celebratory activities included eating moon cakes and throwing Frisbees. A huge super-soaker fight concluded the festivities.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is seen as an important social event and as a time to celebrate the past, meet new people, play games and enjoy life. According to sophomore CSA Events Chair Andrew Yang, the Mid-Autumn Festival is analogous to Thanksgiving.

"It is a time to just have fun," Yang said.

Chien-Chun Liu, president of the Taiwanese Student Association (TSA), emphasized the importance of the festival for family and friends.

"In China, the full moon has always represented the gathering of friends and family...the Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for family reunions," Liu said.

For many Asians on campus, the festival also serves as a reminder of their cultural and ethnic heritage as well as a reminder of their home countries.

"It reminds me of when I used to live in Hong Kong," said Ho Tong, a first-year Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering major.

TASA President Emery Chang shared similar thoughts.

"The festival is a reminder of home," Chang said.

According to CSA president Daranh Hun, the festival is an annual event on campus. It is CSA's first cultural event of the year, and he hopes future events will result in similarly large turnouts.

"We aim for about 100 people at every event," Hun said.

"The Mid-Autumn Festival is said to have originated from the ancient ceremony of sacrificing to the moon goddess," Liu said.

According to Liu, the tradition of eating moon cake was fused with this ceremony, which led to what the festival is today.

Moon cakes are a large part of the Mid-Autumn Festival and eaten because they symbolize the moon. The cake is made of sweet bread and has egg yolk stuffed in the middle. The two biggest moon cake flavors at Tech's festival this year were lotus and red bean.

"Since the Mid-Autumn Festival coincides with the fall harvest, the occasion is also celebrated in Taiwan by making offerings to the earth god Tu-ti Gong in hopes that he will make the next year's harvest even more bountiful," Liu said.

Liu also said that the festival is typically celebrated at parks or in scenic areas in order to better see and value the moon and the harvest.

Over the years, the festival has become more of a custom than a harvest celebration. According to third-year Biology major James Lee, the festival is just a tradition.

Chang and Yang said that the Mid-Autumn Festival is the second largest celebration of the year for the Asian community.

According to Yang, it is eclipsed only by the Lunar New Year. The next Lunar New Year will be celebrated Feb. 18, 2007.