Updated as of 6:45p.m. on Sept. 26 to provide more clarity on the organizers of the event and include details of a future event hosted by the Chinese Club.
Elon University’s Chinese Club hosted the Mid-Autumn Festival in collaboration with the Asian-Pacific Student Association on Sept. 20 in the McBride Gathering Space.
According to senior Ivan Nguyen, co-president of APSA and vice president of Chinese Club, the Mid-Autumn Festival celebrates the moon at its brightest and fullest which occurred this past Tuesday, Sept. 17.
“Lunar New Year is the celebration of transferring from a new year to a new year,” Nguyen said. “For Mid-Autumn Festival, there is a much closer relationship with the origin of the moon.”
Students practice their calligraphy skills at the Mid-Autumn Festival held by the Chinese Club and APSA in the McBride Gathering Space on Sept. 20.
This is the first time that the Mid-Autumn Festival was held in McBride Gathering Space, while previous celebrations were held in Carlton Commons. According to senior Nick Rugbart, Chinese Club president, both APSA and the Chinese Club wanted to move to a bigger space to encourage more students to come.
“Carlton Commons was getting too small for us,” Rugbart said. “This is a larger space on campus and hopefully we can move somewhere bigger next year.”
During the festival, attendees were able to participate in making lanterns, practicing calligraphy and learning about the mythological origins of the festival from Rugbart.
According to Rugbart, the festival revolves around the myth of Chang'e, the goddess of the moon in ancient Chinese mythology, who resides in the moon after drinking an elixir of immortality.
Students create lanterns out of paper at the Mid-Autumn Festival held by the Chinese Club and APSA in the McBride Gathering Space on Sept. 20.
In addition to the lantern and calligraphy, attendees also played a chopstick challenge, where they tried to get the most amount of pompom into a bowl using chopsticks.
Senior Zoe Gehtland said she decided to come to the Mid-Autumn Festival to prepare herself for her J-term trip.
“I'm going to be studying abroad in China this J-term,” Gehtland said. “The co-president of the Chinese club mentioned it in class yesterday, so I wanted to check it out.”
Gehtland also enjoyed the environment that APSA and the Chinese Club created.
“I love all the activities,” Gehtland said. “Getting to just experiment with different things that I've never tried before like the calligraphy was super fun.”
Students work to create paper lanterns at the Mid-Autumn Festival held by the Chinese Club and APSA in the McBride Gathering Space on Sept. 20.
Sophomore Cece Ebora, fellow co-president of APSA, said she was able to learn a lot about this event while the organizations were planning.
“I've really enjoyed just getting to learn about the culture and hearing about the traditions that they do,” Ebora said. “I also really liked learning more about the language, all the poems and the stories that they read, the songs.”
Both APSA and the Chinese Club hope more Elon students attend their events and appreciate Asian culture, according to Nguyen.
“We tend to come off as an organization who only hosts events for people who identify as an API or as a member of the API culture or people who come from an API background,” Nguyen said. “We are interested in everybody who has an interest in our organization, as well as the Asian culture. We are inclusive in nature, so everybody could come to our event and we would love to have people from different cultures come and share their perspective with us.”
APSA’s next event will be a bracelet-making event at 5:45 p.m. Sept. 25 in the CREDE, Moseley 221. The Chinese Club's next event will be a karaoke and game night at 10 p.m. Oct. 4 in the CREDE, Moseley 221.