An evening party with performances of Chinese culture and homemade food will be held at West Virginia University on Thursday, Oct. 1 to celebrate China’s traditional Mid-Autumn Festival.

The party will be held from 7 to 9:30 p.m. in the Mountainlair ballrooms.

The WVU Chinese Students and Scholars Association hosts a party for the Mid-Autumn Festival every year to express love for their family members, their hope for a happy life and to help ease the emotion of homesickness for those far away from home. Various kinds of artistic performances, such as song, dance, witty skits, crosstalk and games will be shown during the party. The performances represent the features of Chinese culture. Homemade moon cakes will be available.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is the second most important traditional festival in China, ranking just after the Spring Festival. It is held on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, a date when the moon is supposedly at its fullest and roundest. The festival’s traditional food is the moon cake, of which there are many different varieties. There are lots of legends about the Mid-Autumn Festival, like “Chang’e Flying to the Moon”, “Wu Gang Felling the Laurel Tree” and “Jade Rabbit Pounding Herbal Medicines into Pulp” – making the festival full of dreamlike and romantic colors.

At the traditional festival, families or friends would sit together to eat moon cakes, appreciate and thank the bright full moon, celebrate the bumper harvest and enjoy family love and happiness. To the Chinese people the full moon symbolizes family reunion, hence the Mid-Autumn Festival is also called the Family Reunion Festival.

All students, staff, faculty and community members are encouraged to stop in and enjoy the festivities of Chinese culture.

-WVU-
jd/09/28/09

CONTACT: Jacqueline A. Dooley, Student Organization Services
304-293-4397, Jacqueline.Dooley@mail.wvu.edu