Fall is a time for harvest and generous offerings. October in Charlottesville offers no exception.
Oct. 8, 11 of the University's East Asian contracted independent organizations, led by the Chinese Student Association, came together to host Full Moon Fest, commemorating an annual harvest celebration held in many Asian nations. This year, the actual holiday fell on Oct. 3, which was the equivalent of Aug. 15 on the lunar calendar. The date is meant to signify when the moon is at its biggest and brightest - a seemingly insignificant reason for celebration, but the Chinese word for "round" is actually the same sound for part of the phrase that means to "gather together." Families and friends, therefore come home to one another and celebrate during this once-a-year occasion.
Although there is no harvest here for University students, the organizations - which included groups as diverse as the Vietnamese Student Association to the Association of Indonesians - extended an open invitation to all Cavaliers regardless of race, gender and ethnicity, to join them for celebratory food, games and dance at the Amphitheater from 5 to 7 p.m.
Also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, Lantern Festival or Moon Cake Festival, the Moon Festival is an annual event that began more than 3,000 years ago. Despite the festival's Chinese origins, today, its ideals and celebratory spirit have permeated the lives and cultures of several East Asian countries.
The University's version of the event differed from many traditional ways of celebrating, said fourth-year College student Monnia Deng. But she said there was one key similarity: moon cakes.
Moon cakes are traditional Chinese pastries that are round in shape, again symbolizing the communal aspect of the festival. The heavy, dense pastries contain various types of fillings, with some of the most popular being red bean paste, lotus seed paste and egg yolk.
For Deng, food is a central component of the festival. The organizations collectively planned to each bring a dish that would best exhibit their respective cultures. As a result, University students were treated to moon cakes, sticky rice cakes, Filipino desserts, Vietnamese iced coffee, Thai iced tea, Japanese rice balls wrapped in seaweed, fortune cookies and Indonesian snacks - all for free.
Each organization also created its own booth for the occasion, offering games or cultural activities. Students learned how to play traditional chopstick games, fold Japanese origami and make Chinese paper lanterns. Other booths offered dice and zodiac games, ping-pong, a five-stones skipping game and flour and incense games. The Thai Student Organization even taught attendants how to write their names in Thai.
During the festival, organizations took to the Amphitheater's stage to perform cultural dances and skits, including a traditional Lion Dance and a display of Wushu, one form of Chinese marital arts.
The performers prepared weeks prior to the event, said first-year Engineering student Kevin Chung, who played the role of Sun Number Seven in the Mid-Autumn Festival Skit. The Chinese legend says that there was once 10 suns in the sky, which understandably resulted in a drought, leading to havoc and death for the people. An archer then shot down nine suns, leaving just one in the sky. As a reward, the archer was given a pill of immortality, which placed him in the moon.
A lot of the work, however, occurred in the final days leading up to the event. The day before the festival, "we spent a couple hours putting stuff together," said third-year College student Upasana Bhattacharya, who is on the executive board of the Association of Indonesians.
Second-year College student Stephanie Lay, community chair for the Chinese Student Association, said the primary goal for the festival was two-fold: "to celebrate the full moon harvest and ... to bring all the [University's Asian] organizations together."
Based on the ringing sound of laughter, as well as the sight of cleaned plates and full stomachs, the event seemed to achieve both of these intended goals.
"I feel like it was a great opportunity to meet other people from other cultures and showcase my culture as well," said second-year College student Bimo Yusman, a member of the Association of Indonesians.
A level of cultural and ethnic integration, that in years past, may have occurred only once in a blue moon, shined as University students came together to celebrate Moon Fest.
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