ANGELES CITY - To highlight the culture and tradition in China, the Confucius Institute of Angeles University Foundation (CI-AUF) celebrated the Mooncake Festival here last October 4 with the participation of Angelenean CI-AUF students and some faculty members.
Wu Jun, Chinese Director of CI-AUF, said that the mooncake festival is annually celebrated in China, every 15th of August.
According to her, it is also called Zhongqiu Jie which means “mid-autumn.”
The purpose of the event is for Chinese families to reunite and get together, an admiration to the bright and round moon and a beautiful season to drink tea to celebrate the harvest season.
"I think this celebration is relevant for us students who are taking up Chinese Language Class but it is also relevant for other students to celebrate this with us. We want that all the Angeleneans will be able to taste the culture and understand more about China. Actually, when we stayed in China for us to study there, we experienced mooncake festival and Chinese families will invite us to eat with them. This is the moment wherein the moon is very bright and has the perfect round shape. Everyone who is not staying with their family for work or school needs to go back to their family and eat under the bright and beautiful rounded shape moon," Monica Jane Torda said, Vice President for Chinese and Cultural Society in CI-AUF, said.
Wang Bolin, a Chinese teacher, said that CI-AUF prepared performances like Beijing Opera, Wu Shu, Kung Fu and other cultural dances in China. Also games like bobing, a luck game and a very popular game during the mooncake festival wherein you will use dice to determine your luck and win mooncake.
Wu said that the event is also a way to let the students know about the importance of the Chinese culture, not only the language.
CI-AUF has been celebrating the mooncake festival at the university for seven consecutive years. (Christian Kier Ronquillo/AUF Intern)