Monday Oct. 6 marked this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival, a celebration traditionally associated with the harvest. It is held on the 15th day of the eigth month in the Chinese calendar, corresponding to September/October on the Gregorian calendar. It is a day to symbolize family reunion, enjoy traditional Chinese food, such as mooncake, and spend time with loved ones.
On campus, a celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival was hosted by the Villanova Chinese Student Association (CSA) and Villanova’s Chinese Studies Program on Friday, Oct. 3.
Villanova University’s Chinese Student Association celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival with special performances throughout the event. The event started with a traditional Chinese instrumental percussion and Chinese Lion dance, intended to ward off evil spirits and bring good fortune.
“Our mission is to spread cultural awareness for the Chinese Lion Dance,” Sidney Wong, Director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Lion Dancing team, said. “I think that it is not a super well known thing, and even if they have seen it before, they haven’t seen it up front and personal. So, we are giving people the opportunity to experience and see it, and it might make them more interested. Overall, for the greater Philadelphia area, it is just a wonderful thing.”
There were also several beautiful songs performed by the Villanova Melodics. Statistics professor Dr. Siyu Wang played a song on her Guzheng, a traditional Chinese string instrument that is plucked to create a unique sound. Several students performed songs in Chinese and another student performed with a Chinese Yo-Yo.
The last performances were all dances performed by the Main Line Chinese Culture Center dance teams, whose members danced across the stage expressing stories of their culture and ancestors.
The members of CSA hoped to help students learn about the Mid-Autumn Festival, explaining their own family traditions, discussing their favorite Chinese meals and demonstrating how people can celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival by spending time with loved ones.
“It is the time of year that brings family together, that brings friends together, we eat food together, enjoy the holiday,” CSA President Calum Huang said. “It is good for people to know about this culture a little bit more, that was missing from campus before.”
Many viewers went to support friends or family performing in the festival, and others went to feel connected to their Chinese culture and traditions while away from home.
“I think this is honestly just an amazing cultural experience,” freshman Roman Mastromatteo said. “There is a lot of dancing and performing that I have never seen in my life, and I just think it’s so incredibly fulfilling to be able to see all this new stuff and experience this new culture.”
The Mid-Autumn Festival provided the opportunity for students to try new foods, music and styles of dance and to further educate themselves about Chinese culture.
To learn more about CSA, students can visit its Instagram, @villanova_csa.
