CSSA brings Moon Fest to Dunn Meadow

Colorful balloons, traditional games and Chinese desserts filled Dunn Meadow Sunday afternoon as hundreds of students attended the annual Moon Festival Garden Party, organized by the Chinese Students and Scholars Association.

A Chinese wish chain, a decoration traditionally created at Chinese celebrations, guided guests to the dessert table.

Each guest wrote down a wish on a strip of colored paper, and each wish was looped and hung on a long ribbon spanning the entry to the food tent.

“I hope to survive the school year.”

“I want to win a marathon.”

The paper chain grew as the festivities progressed into the afternoon.

“Moon Festival is one of the biggest traditional festivals in China,” sophomore Xuemeng Wang, the association’s director of marketing, said.

“If you asked me to rank the traditional festivals in China, Spring Festival would be the first, and the Moon Festival would be the second.”

Members provided guests with Chinese desserts, including traditional moon cakes, a treat consumed by Chinese every year at Moon Festival that grew out of a Chinese story, Vince Wen, president of the association, said.

There are many versions of the story, Wen said, each dating back thousands of years. According to one version, a girl and her husband were separated by a god, and the girl was sent to the moon.

The girl brought a rabbit with her as she was carried to the moon, and the moon cakes, Wen said, are eaten to remember her.

The rabbit, another symbol of the Moon Festival, was also present as sophomore Matthew Zhu walked around in a rabbit costume to greet guests.

Other traditional activities awaited guests with the opportunity to embrace the Chinese culture, whether they called China home or not.

“We’ve got four performances from different student groups,” Wen said. “Basically, there are dancing groups and singers. All of it is traditional Chinese stuff.”

There were also games for guests to play, most of which were traditional Chinese games.

One game required players to move glass marbles with chopsticks from one cup to another.  And “drop chopsticks” allowed players five tries to drop a chopstick into the narrow lip of a bottle.

For festival attendees, the day was not only an opportunity to come together, but also a reminder of the comforts of home.

“Our Chinese students here are far away from their families,” Wang said. “Our CSSA tried to create a sense of belonging for Chinese students by organizing this festival.”