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POSTED AT 08:46 PM ON Sep. 28, 2008 

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Sophomore Ren Han did not celebrate this year’s Moon Festival like he typically does, but he isn’t complaining.

“Usually it’s not a party, but because our family is not here, the Chinese society is one big family,” Han said.

Han was one of the more than 500 attendees who spread across Dunn Meadow on Saturday afternoon celebrating the annual Moon Festival.

The IU Chinese Student and Scholar Association, Asian Student Union, Hong Kong Students Association, Japanese Student Association and Korean Student Association were hosts to the festival. The Malaysia Student Association, Taiwanese Student Association and the Vietnamese Student Association rounded out the list of hosts.
Han said his family’s celebration of the holiday is usually less elaborate and just a family dinner.

The Moon Festival included interactive booths, games, calligraphic tattoos, fortune tellers, student performances and food that gave attendees a taste of the famous “moon cake.”

Each booth had information about a certain country but had a different interactive element.

Ting Wang, a graduate student, spent her Saturday afternoon trying to pick up as many marbles as possible with chopsticks at the Hong Kong Student Association booth.

Although she did not exactly win the race of getting the most marbles into a bowl using chopsticks, her opponent let her win, and she had the choice of getting chopsticks or a small coin purse.

Freshman Julie Zivich celebrated the Moon Festival for the first time this year. For her, the booths were the most memorable aspect of festival.

“I like the displays. They teach you something about their history,” Zivich said.
The Korean Student Association booth included a demonstration on how to play the drums. The booth also included students dressed in the traditional “hanbok” clothing, said KSA member and sophomore Eddie Kim.

The night ended with student performances from KSA, JSA, CSSA and VSA. Some of the performers like JSA sang songs that went along with the holiday.

Regardless of which aspect of the festival people liked best, IU Chinese Students and Scholar Association President Yan Jin hoped they got a taste of the different Asian countries students represent at IU.

“I hope they can first have a lot of fun and learn about and see another aspect of IU,” Jin said.