On September 22, 2018, Members of The East Cobb Branch of AYLUS and numerous other volunteers brought awareness to the mid-autumn festival on the 24th. At the East Cobb Library, an event lasted ONE hour to allow anyone to experience and learn about Mid-Autumn Festival. It is part of the Chinese Cultural Program launched by East Cobb Library, the event included, explanation of the festival, Chinese music and dance, and hands on experience with Chinese culture.
In the beginning of the event, a member of Walton’s Chinese Club explained the origins of the mid-autumn festival. Describing how it originated, when it is, and what it is about. The festival came about as a means of celebrating the year’s harvest and the moon. The festival happens on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month which is at the time crops are harvestable. In 2018, that day is Sep 24.
First to perform was a person that played the guzheng. The guzheng is a traditionally Chinese instrument of 21 strings. After that 3 girls danced a pop dance “It’s You” for the festival, a brother and his younger sister played a duet, his sister sing a song in Chinese accompanied by his flute. Then a person played a Chinese folk song on the violin. There is very popular Chinese folk song- The Moon Represents My Heart song played by 3 people in different groups (Cello, Violin, and Key Board Piano. And to follow the age-old tradition, the last performance was the best performance. For the last performance, 3 girls performed a traditional dance of Fern Leaf Hedge Bamboo Under the Moonlight. It was extremely great of them to put in all their effort on the final performance after a few times practice. All the AYLUS members explained their acts in both Mandarin and English to the audience demonstrating that they are bilingual.
At the end, tables with arts and crafts supplies were brought out allowing everyone to make traditional Chinese lanterns usually used at the festival. While they were making these crafts, AYLUS volunteers passed out homemade mooncakes and Chinese tea to everyone to try. The audience loved the mooncakes and the table were swarmed with many people trying to make their own paper crafts. Eventually, the event ended at 3:00 and all the people had to leave with more knowledge about the mid-autumn festival.
Attendance: Michael Fu, Howard Hua, Maxwell Jiang, Rachel Li, Cynthia Ruan, Katherine Sha, Grace Shen, Kevin Shen, Jack Xu, Eileen Zhang, Isabel Zhou, David Qu.
Reported by Maxwell Jiang
